


The Green Arrow vs. Oliver Queen

by Mrz1289



Series: The Green Arrow Trilogy [2]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-06
Updated: 2015-02-20
Packaged: 2018-02-28 09:24:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 15
Words: 117,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2727200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mrz1289/pseuds/Mrz1289
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ra's al Ghul's attempt to destroy Starling is two years past. Now, the city seems poised for great things with Oliver Queen leading the charge. However, with all of the success in his life, is The Green Arrow even needed anymore? When someone starts attacking Oliver personally, that question will be answered once and for all. This story is a sequel to "The Green Arrow."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Two Years Later

_**Two years later** _

It's amazing what two years can do for you, Oliver thought as he stood just offstage. The stage had been setup for today's event just a few hours earlier and ever since the surprise press conference had been announced, press had slowly started to fill the seating area. That had been until about an hour ago when the seating filled up and the rest of the number of people that continued to file in were forced to stand in the back behind the seats.

"Apparently, Oliver Queen's star power is still as strong as ever."

Smiling, Oliver turned around to see his lovely girlfriend marching towards him. This was the largest difference between two years ago and now. Instead of Felicity disappearing to Gotham City, she now shared his residence at Queen Mansion with him. He was as happy as he could ever remember being and the woman before him bore a large responsibility for that.

"Well, I'm not in the tabloids as often as I used to be." Oliver replied with a smirk. The truth was that after relinquishing control of the day-to-day operations of QC, Oliver had chosen to take his life out of the public eye. He made the occasional appearance at QC Charity Events or at Verdant events but mostly, Oliver spent his time working at home.

"True story." Felicity commented. "Although it hasn't stopped them from parking outside of the house three nights a week for the last two years."

"And how much have they gotten out of that?" Oliver mused.

"Just that picture of you with your shirt off they took through the parlor window." Felicity said with a grin.

"I still blame you for that." Oliver grumbled.

"Who said it was a bad thing?" Felicity said incredulously. "I framed the damn thing."

"Very funny."

"You think I'm joking..." Felicity mumbled softly.

"I heard that." Oliver said seriously, although the grin on his face betrayed the serious tone he had taken.

Suddenly, one of the PR reps from QC (Oliver couldn't remember his name) stepped off the stage and approached Oliver.

"Are you ready, Mr. Queen?" he asked nervously.

"Certainly." Oliver said, plastering the public Oliver Queen smile onto his face.

"Knock 'em dead." Felicity said from behind him as she raised up on her toes and planted a kiss just under left ear. "I'm so excited for this."

"I am too." Oliver agreed as he followed the PR rep to the stage.

Instantly, the flashes of cameras blinded him as marched up the podium with his family's company logo on it. The applause in the room was almost deafening as Oliver raised his hands, begging for silence. For almost a minute, the crowd didn't cooperate, shouting loudly and screaming his name. Since the defeat of Ra's al Ghul, Oliver had become the city's largest individual donor to charitable causes and his company's charity, The Robert Queen Memorial Foundation, had raised nearly 100 million dollars for various charities across the city.

Couple that with the stability that Oliver Queen now brought and Oliver was the city's most famous and beloved resident.

Finally, the applause died down and Oliver was able to start his presentation.

"Thank you for that warm welcome and thank you again for coming." Oliver said, beginning with the customary greeting. "In case you're unaware, my name is Oliver Queen and along with my sister, I am the controlling shareholder in Queen Consolidated. In the last two years, QC has become the nation's leader in technological breakthrough along with our software defense systems. We've teamed with companies like Wayne Enterprises and Kord Industries and with our pooled resources, we've seen the speed at which we can produce new technologies increase ten-fold."

At this point, Oliver waived to the side of the stage. With that signal, the current company CEO, Walter Steele, joined him on stage.

"The man truly responsible for this success is this man, my step-father Walter Steele." Oliver said before encouraging the audience to applaud the man. As always, Walter took the credit graciously. "Working with Walter has been one of the great joys in my life. So, it is a sad day that I announce that Walter is stepping down as CEO of Queen Consolidated. Walter has expressed that he would like to work in several areas related to Starling City and that his work at QC wouldn't allow him the time to do that. Because of this, Walter has put his retirement on hold for nearly a year. We're sad to see a man of such skills leave us but we know that whatever he does with his time and resources, our great city will benefit!"

Again, the crowd gathered chose to applaud Walter. Slowly, Oliver marched over to Walter before hugging the man he had come to know as a wonderful man and father figure. As the two men embraced, Oliver whispered in Walter's ear.

"Thank you again for agreeing to this."

"Thank you for considering me, son." Walter said as they broke apart and shook hands.

"You're still family." Oliver said simply before turning back to the podium. Again, he had to wait for the crowd to settle back down before he could begin again. "When Walter came to me to discuss his retirement, we decided that we wanted to announce his replacement the day we announced his departure from the company. With that in mind, Walter and I have spent the last four months interviewing new candidates and we believe that we have found ourselves a great man to replace Walter. Allow me to introduce Queen Consolidated's newest CEO, Ray Palmer!"

Again, at the mention of his name, another man stepped onto the stage. The moment Oliver had met Palmer, Oliver had known that he would be the man to lead QC into the future. He had both the brains and the face to take QC far. With a grin, Ray took his place next to Oliver as Oliver continued.

"Ray was formerly the owner and CEO of Palmer Technologies. I met Ray at a technology conference with Walter and QC Executive VP Felicity Smoak and knew that Ray would be the man for our company. However, Ray was a tough man to convince. Obviously, he didn't want to leave his company in the dust being the good man that he is. So, Queen Consolidated purchased controlling interest in PalmerTech and has been rebranding all of the companies' facilities with the QC logo. No jobs were lost and not a single project changed."

With that, Oliver turned and nodded to both Walter and Ray, dismissing them from the stage per the plan.

"Ray will hold his own introductory press conference later in the week to answer your questions and all three of us will available for comment upon the conclusion of this event. Finally, I do have one more announcement. Ever since Slade Wilson's siege on this city, I have made a bit of a name for myself by supporting several candidates for public office within the city. First, it was Adam Donner for Mayor and then it was several of the city's councilmen and women last year."

This was the part of the event that Oliver was truly nervous for. Taking a deep breath, he continued.

"As we reach the reelection season, people have continued to ask me who I was going to support for public office. The first is my close friend Laurel Lance. As you all know, Laurel is running to be our city's District Attorney to replace outgoing DA Gladys King who is retiring at the end of her term. I've known Laurel for almost as long as I can remember and I know that she will be a great District Attorney in our near future."

Quickly, Oliver grabbed a drink from the glass of water in front of him. His hand trembled slightly at the thought of what he was about to say.

"There has been a lot of talk about our current Mayor, Adam Donner. In the face of the recovery from The Undertaking and Wilson's attack, Adam was a wonderful mayor. His background in law and economics made him an ideal candidate to lead our city, hence why I help fund his election and reelection campaign. Unfortunately, once we recovered from those attacks and the city's occupation by The League of Assassins, our city has stalled. While our companies grow, our city's poor and destitute remain just as poor off as they had been before the accident that left me shipwrecked on a deserted island for five years. Then, I wouldn't have noticed because I was too busy being the immature playboy that I was. But I've changed since then and for the better. I've noticed that our city has not changed, it hasn't evolved and that needs to change. It's because of this lack of evolution, this lack of forward progress that I have decided to run for public office."

Instantly, the screen behind Oliver changed from the generic QC to something different. Simply, it read: Queen for Mayor.

"Specifically, I have decided to run for Mayor of Starling City."

Almost instantaneously, the room exploded as the reporters in the room tripped over themselves to ask questions. With a grin, Oliver marched off the stage to a clear excited Felicity Smoak. The moment he was out of sight, Felicity jumped into his arms, nearly strangling him with the force of her hug. As she broke away from him, she planted a kiss on his cheek, leaving a hint of red lipstick.

"That couldn't have gone any better!" Felicity shouted with excitement.

"I know." Oliver said, unable to suppress a grin. "They didn't even know what hit 'em."


	2. The Brick

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver battles Danny Brickwell, discusses the mob and starts his mayoral campaign.

After spending the rest of the day talking to the press, Oliver returned to Queen Mansion with Felicity and Diggle. For the first hour at home, Oliver simply did what he did most evenings: watched the local news with Felicity at his side. Not surprisingly, the news was focused on him and his announcement to run for Mayor.

"You certainly did surprise them." Felicity whispered as she nuzzled into his shoulder. Felicity had gone into the office at nearly four that morning to get as much of her work done as she could before she made her appearance at Oliver's press conference. While the couple wasn't married, she was largely seen as the stabilizing force in Oliver's life. For the next few months, the pair of them were going to be judged as one unit while they ran the election circuit.

"You can't fall asleep." Oliver said with a grin. "We still have work to do tonight."

"I'm skipping tonight." Felicity mumbled.

"You can't skip tonight. We need you."

"Why? You're the Green Arrow. The second they see you, 99% of the criminals just pee themselves and give up."

"That isn't quite how it works." Oliver chuckled.

"Close enough." Felicity said before looking at her watch. "It's about that time, isn't it?"

"It is." Oliver said as Felicity adjusted to sit up. Just as she did, Diggle walked into the room. "Things good at home?"

"Lyla and Sara are in for the evening. We ready to go?"

"Once we get downstairs." Oliver confirmed as he stood. Taking Felicity's hand, the pair of them followed Diggle to back of the home. As the three of them walked, they came upon a portrait of Robert Queen. Slowly, the three of them stopped and faced the portrait. If anyone else had happened upon them, it would have appeared that they were just looking at the photo.

In fact, hidden within the eyes of Robert Queen, were biometric scanners. Each of them were scanning the retinas and fingerprints of the three people standing before them. Within the last year, Oliver had cataloged the information of every person that knew of the Green Arrow's identity and those people were granted certain levels of access. Thea and Roy were only granted partial access after their move to Keystone City while Diggle, Laurel and Felicity could access the new ArrowCave at any point. Barry Allen and Clark Kent were also given partial access assuming Oliver himself was with them.

Not surprisingly, Bruce Wayne did not have access to the Arrow Cave.

"Have you heard anything from Thea or Roy recently?" Diggle asked as they waited for the system to unlock the door.

"Not really." Oliver said softly. "They're both a little busy."

About a year earlier, Roy and Thea had left Starling City and taken up residence in Keystone City. After her brief tenure as the CEO of Queen Consolidated, Thea had discovered that she had enjoyed and missed the work that she had been doing. As a result, she had applied for the President position of the Keystone branch of Queen Consolidated. Once her application had gone through, Walter had immediately hired her.

To go with her, Oliver had decided to expand his nightclub business, opening branches in Keystone, Central City, Metropolis, Miami and New Orleans. With their move, Oliver had named Roy the general manager of the Keystone location. While Oliver missed them both dearly, he was happy to see that they had both spread their wings.

He was also happy to hear that Arsenal and The Red Arrow had relocated to Keystone City last year as well.

Finally, the scanners finished doing their work and a panel behind them opened, giving them access to the stairs that would lead down to the ArrowCave. Motioning for the other two to enter the cave first, Oliver followed the pair down the stairs. This particular set of stairs worked their way in between two walls in the basement level before burrowing another ninety feet before hitting the ceiling of the ArrowCave.

They had specifically designed the new cave to be completely impervious. Anything short of a nuclear bomb exploding directly above it would physically protect it while the eight feet thick walls prevented any external signals from getting in. Felicity, being the genius that she was, had been able to set up a system that would allow her to broadcast to them without it being able to be traced.

That and the fact that their signal was bounced around nearly 1,000 local IP addresses before reaching Oliver or Diggle or...

"Took you guys long enough." Laurel said with a grin, waiting for them with her feet up on the desk in front of her.

"Felicity kept trying to fall asleep." Oliver said as he went to his locker.

"Stop being so damn comfortable and we won't have that problem."

The Applied Sciences division of Queen Consolidated was widely renowned as the most technologically advanced office building in the world, winning numerous national and global awards for their integration of the world's most advanced day-to-day tech into the workplace. If those same people could get a look at the ArrowCave, they would think that Applied Sciences was working in a cave in the most remote area of Siberia.

If a tech was created but deemed implausible for mass production for any known reason, it ended up in the ArrowCave. The net worth of the new gear there rivaled that of the entire northern half of Africa. Basically, if there was something that they wanted done, they could do it.

They had also furnished it with an entirely separate men's and women's locker rooms complete with running water for showers. Apparently, Laurel had threatened to quit as Black Canary if there were no showers.

That particular grievance never made it Oliver, although he was fairly certain that she wasn't entirely serious.

At least he hoped not.

Once the three of them had finished changing into their gear for the evening, they came back out to the general work area for tonight's briefing. Unfortunately for them, the news they were about to get wasn't great.

"Brick again?" Diggle groaned as the hologram image of him projected from the back of Felicity's computer.

"Apparently, he offered to pay the guard a million dollars to get him out." Laurel said as she looked over his file. "Then, he threw the guard through a wall."

"Through the wall?" Oliver asked.

"Yeah," Laurel confirmed. "what's left of him is going to Starling County ICU. He's not even expected to make it there."

"How long ago did he get out?"

This time, it was Felicity that went into full-on debriefing mode.

"He's been out twenty-five minutes which means that the three of you need to get moving." Felicity said as she put her earpiece in. "Get moving and I'll finish the briefing on the way."

"Got it." Oliver said before leaning down to kiss Felicity on the cheek. "Keep an eye out for us."

"Always do." Felicity replied before turning to look him in the eye. "Be safe."

"Always am." Oliver answered, completely his part of their nightly ritual before heading towards the loading bay. When the new ArrowCave had been installed, they had build a secret tunnel that connected to a small road just outside of Queen Mansion. It ended up taking them a bit out of their way when going back into the city but it also made their first appearance of the night nowhere near Queen Mansion.

So, after ten minutes of underground induced radio silence, the three heroes of Starling City broke out into the night sky and back into radio contact with Felicity.

"Go." Oliver muttered.

_"He's been making his way back to the Glades, it looks like."_ Felicity started.  _"If he gets there, we'll never catch him."_

"Then we get him before he gets to The Glades." Oliver said softly into his comm. "Where is he now?"

_"He's on Adams, going towards 5th and O'Neil. You're six minutes away right now."_

_"And at the rate he's going?"_ Diggle asked.

_"He'll be in the Glades in ten."_ Felicity informed then. Then, Oliver felt as if he could literally sense her smirk.  _"So you'd better get moving."_

"We'll take that under consideration." Oliver smirked before ramping the speed up on his bike.

* * *

As the three masked heroes hit the edge of Starling City, Oliver spoke into his comm.

"Sentry, read the file."

_"Do we really need to do this?"_ Felicity asked politely in his ear.  _"You've faced Brick like five times now."_

"And we read the files every time, Sentry. Just to remind ourselves who we're fighting."

_"You'd think you would remember the giant red man that looks like a giant pile of rocks."_

"Sentry." Oliver said with a grin.

_"Oh fine."_ she replied as Oliver imagined her rolling her eyes.  _"Tonight's contestant is Daniel Isaiah "The Brick" Brickwell. Formerly an enforcer for Frank Bertinelli, Brickwell took over when Frank was removed from power. Highly driven to succeed and shows a fairly decent sense of business, especially considering he kept himself hidden from us for nearly a year before we were able to figure out that he took over for Bertinelli."_

Oliver could hear Felicity clicking away as she accessed different parts of Brickwell's file. As usual, the image brought a rare smile to his face.

_"When we caught up with him, Brickwell skipped town and ended up in Central City just around the same time that Wells' handy-dandy particle accelerator went kaboom. The building that he was in was right next door and conveniently, made of bricks. When the accelerator went off, the building collapsed on top of him. When he awoke, his body had been transformed. His body density went through the roof and his skin took on a rough red shade, making his body basically the composition of the roof."_

Finally, Felicity got to the part that he knew that she would hate. It needed to be said though so they could all be reminded of who they were facing.

_"Previous meetings with Brickwell have left GA with several broken ribs, a broken hand and a shattered hip, Black Canary with a broken foot, a first-grade concussion and two dislocated shoulders, in the same meeting I would add. However, our winner for this evening is The Hood who in addition to breaking nearly every bone in his right arm trying to punch Brickwell, also broke his collarbone, had a fractured skull and the winning injury, a collapsed lung and internal bleeding from being thrown off a third story building. How long were you sidelined after that particular evening?"_

_"Four months."_  Diggle replied with a chuckle.  _"Don't sound so happy about that."_

_"It was nice having some company down here."_

"Focus, you two." Oliver grinned. "Where is Brickwell now?"

_"He's about six blocks from you, straight ahead."_ Felicity said as she accessed their satellite imaging system.  _"The building he's entering is an abandoned apartment building on the edge of the Glades. Seven floors, the building is a known Bertinelli family hideout. He probably won't be alone."_

_"When will you know how many people are in the building?"_ Laurel asked.

_"Right about now."_ Felicity chimed happily.  _"Seems like Brickwell is alone although we don't know how long that will last."_

"Alright, let's get in there then." Oliver replied as he gunned the bike into the next gear.

Five minutes later, the three of them pulled into the alley behind the building that Felicity had noted. Once they dismounted their bikes, Oliver called Laurel and Diggle over to him as they approached the backdoor of the complex.

"Sentry, what floor is Brickwell on?" Oliver asked Felicity.

_"Not surprisingly, you're going to be taking the stairs. Floor seven."_

"Floor seven, got it." Oliver answered before turning back to Laurel and Diggle. "Hood, bring the guns. I know that it won't hurt him but it will annoy him. Canary, sonic cry is ready to go, right?"

"In hand." Laurel said as she pulled out the same circular disc that Sara used to use. "Just let me know when."

"The second we get in there." Oliver replied with a grin. "Again, it's not going to do anything to him other than piss him off but I'm okay with that."

_"You're okay with pissing off the giant brick man?"_ Felicity asked in his ear.

"Not really." Oliver answered. "I'm using the new arrow today."

"Is it ready?" Diggle asked softly.

"We'll find out."

The "new arrow" was another one of Felicity's wonderful ideas. This idea was an arrow filled with an expanding adhesive. The shaft of this particular arrow was slightly wider than one of his normal arrows and was made of a weaker aluminum shell. This caused the arrow to break when it made contact with its target. When the arrow broke, the contact with the oxygen caused the adhesive within to expand to ten times its original size, covering the target in the adhesive.

A nice touch that Felicity had added was that the way the adhesive was loaded inside the arrow meant that when the arrow broke, the adhesive only expanded downward. This avoided the potential for the adhesive covering the target's face and killing them by suffocating them.

"You two take the back stairs. Stay out of sight until it's time." Oliver ordered.

"When will it be time?"

"When he starts coming after me." Oliver grinned.

"Of course." Diggle muttered with a shake of his head before nodding to Laurel. Seeing they were both ready, the pair of them raced across the first floor of the building to the back staircase. Once they were there, both quickly started ascending. Knowing they were on their way, Oliver quickly drew his bow and raced up his own stair. About a minute later, he was on the stairs just outside the seventh floor.

"Confirm location before radio silence."

_"Confirmed. Ready to breach the second we hear the building start shaking."_

"Hopefully you'll come a little sooner than that." Oliver said with a grin before silently opening the door. The second he did, Oliver wished that he could have been anywhere else. The building smelled worse than he could have possibly imagined. It was likely that the plumbing had stopped working years ago and the homeless who had occasionally squatted there had just used wherever they could to relieve themselves.

The condition of the building itself wasn't much better. There were large parts of the walls and the floor that were missing. Suddenly, Oliver was worried that if the fight with Brickwell got to heavy, this building wouldn't survive it.

Suddenly, Oliver heard something behind him. As he turned, Oliver drew an explosive arrow from his quiver and lined up a shot. Sure enough, his target was the object that he had heard moving.

Each time Oliver saw what was left of Danny Brickwell, he couldn't help but marvel a little at the size of him. Even before his transformation, Brickwell had been large and more physically imposing than most. But after his transformation, he truly was a monster, standing nearly eight feet tall. In fact, as Brickwell stood from the chair he had been seated in, he nearly had to duck to even fit in the room.

**"The Green Arrow."**  Brickwell growled, his voice deeper than any you could imagine.  **"I was wondering when you'd turn up."**

"You were expecting me?" Oliver asked, his voice distorter activated.

**"I broke out of Iron Heights. I think you have the place bugged."**

"If you knew I was coming, why didn't you just skip town?" Oliver questioned him.

**"I grow tired of fighting you, Arrow."** Brickwell said as he marched slowly towards Oliver, the entire building shaking with each step.  **"You've beaten me before but that was my own fault. I underestimated you and it won't happen again."**

"Are you sure?"

**"I am."** Brickwell growled menacingly.  **"It's why I made sure there were snipers surrounding the building before you got here."**

Instantly, Oliver went to one of the windows and scanned the surrounding rooftops. Sure enough, Oliver could spot at least three snipers in the immediate area with it likely that there were more around the other side of the building.

**"It's also why I ordered the men that are coming up the back staircase after The Hood and Black Canary."**

Once Oliver got that news, radio silence was over. He quickly lifted his hand to his ear and spoke.

"Hood, BC: you have men coming up the stairs for you. Are there windows in the stairs?"

_"Yes."_ Diggle replied.

"Take them."

_"What about you?"_ Laurel asked.

"I'll get my own way out." Oliver said before turning back to Brickwell. "I don't think this is going to end how you think it's going to."

**"It's going to end with those two getting away. That's fine. They aren't who I really wanted."**

"I'm here, Brickwell." Oliver said, taunting the giant man. "You've been standing there for this whole time. What's stopping you?"

**"I'm in no hurry."**

"Unfortunately for you, I am." Oliver replied before lining his arrow up at Brickwell. However, at the last second, Oliver turned and aimed at one of the load-bearing column in the center of the building. Releasing the arrow, the column exploded on contact and only seconds later, the building started shaking, no longer able to support its own weight.

**"Nicely done, Green Arrow."** Brickwell replied, chuckling to himself.  **"You've condemned yourself to death."**

"That's what you think." Oliver answered firmly. He knew he was running out of time so he was going to have to move quickly. In a flash, Oliver withdrew another newer arrow. Aiming at the floor just in front of Brickwell, Oliver fired and turning around. The second the arrow hit the ground, it immediately released a blinding flash, causing Brickwell to growl in pain.

Moving as fast as he could, Oliver finally drew the adhesive arrow and fired, striking Brickwell directly in the chest. A second later, the adhesive began to cover Brickwell and reached out, sticking to everything around it. Within twenty seconds, Brickwell had fallen and was now glued to the floor, screaming for Oliver to let him out.

**"You're just going to leave me in here while the building falls down!"** Brickwell shouted.

"You'll survive." Oliver said simply before accessing his radio. "Hood, BC?"

_"We're out and we've taken care of your little sniper problem."_ Laurel answered.  _"Now, get the hell out of there."_

"Yes ma'am." Oliver said shortly. However, as Oliver took a step towards the windows, the floor suddenly gave out from beneath him. For a second, Oliver felt that gravity had forgotten him, leaving him floating in midair. Then, it seemed that gravity remembered, sending Oliver falling quickly to the earth. The structure of the building was so unsound at this point that when Oliver hit the floor of the sixth level, he simply broke through it.

The same happened for the fifth and fourth floor before Oliver finally came to a crashing halt on the third floor. Groaning in pain in what was certainly a dislocated shoulder, Oliver rolled onto his back before using his uninjured (or less injured) left arm to push himself off the ground.

_"OLIVER!"_ Felicity shouted in his ear.

"I'm fine." Oliver grunted.

_"You may be fine but you need to get your ass in gear."_ Diggle shouted.  _"That building is coming down. Now."_

"Understood." Oliver replied as he made his way to the stairs. Thankfully, there was a window at the third floor staircase. Throwing a line-dart to the building next to them, Oliver jumped out of the window as he felt the floor of the building shake again, this time worse than before. Swinging down to the ground, Oliver rolled, grunting as his shoulder jammed into the ground again, before getting back to his feet and sprinting for his bike.

Seconds later, as Oliver reached his bike, the building gave one final shake before starting to give.

"WHERE ARE YOU TWO?" Oliver shouted.

"Right here." Laurel replied as she raced from the alley behind the building and mounted her bike. Diggle was hot on her heels. Instantly, the three of them fired up their engines and bolted from the building. Looking his rear mirrors, Oliver was able to see the building collapse to the ground, leaving nothing but a pile of brick and rubble.

"Sentry, how strong is that adhesive?"

_"We tested it on a semi-truck. Put one square foot on the back left tire. It never went anywhere. Brickwell will be there for awhile."_

"Good." Oliver replied. "Contact Barry. Tell him to get a STAR Labs cleanup team out here. I want Brickwell inside their metaprison."

_"I'll make the call now. Just come home."_

"On our way now."

* * *

After patching Oliver up and correcting his shoulder, the whole of the Staring City Team Arrow sat in the ArrowCave to go over some intel. At least, two of them would be.

"Diggle, Laurel: I want you two back on patrols." Oliver said as he took a seat next to Felicity. "It's probably going to be a slow night now that we brought a building down on Brickwell but you never know."

"Try not bringing the building down on yourself next time." Diggle replied as he grabbed his helmet.

"I'll take that into consideration." Oliver replied, waving for the two of them to go back out. Once the pair of them were gone, Felicity came over to Oliver and sat on his lap, placing a gentle kiss on his forehead.

"How are you doing?" Felicity asked. "I mean, I know that you tried to drop a building on yourself so you can't be great."

"I've had much worse." Oliver replied, meeting Felicity's gaze. "I'll take the next day or two to recover and then I'll be back out there."

"Good." Felicity said with a grin before turning back to her computer. "Now, to figure out how Brickwell got a million dollars while he was in prison."

"Wasn't access to his accounts shut off?" Oliver asked.

"It wasn't his accounts. I've checked everything we have on him and none of his accounts were touched." Felicity said, a hint of disappointment in her voice. "That means that Brickwell isn't the top dog anymore, right?"

"We can't assume that but I would have to say that it's something we should look into."

"Candidates?" Felicity asked as she moved to their list of potential criminals in Starling City. Basically, everyone of wealth who seemed seedy was on the list. Most of them they had some sort of negative intel on so they weren't simply being paranoid.

Especially since you never knew when one of these people were going to go from bribing city auditors to running weapons into the city.

"Daggett is still at the top of my list." Oliver said as Felicity underlined the name John Daggett. "Shady connections to the Maroni Family in Gotham. He's reportedly been visited by our friend in Gotham several times, although Wayne's never been able to catch him with anything."

"Yes, but Daggett's only been here a few months." Felicity reminded him. "So unless organized crime in Starling is just being run by the Gotham Mafia, then that doesn't really make any sense."

"I suppose you're right." Oliver answered. "Keep his name up there though."

"Will do. I'm also adding Tobias White." Felicity said, underlining his names. "Numerous income sources that I can't trace because they're either handled entirely in cash or by item trade. He's got connections to basically every large city in the country and it seems that he has been able to exert his influence more recently, especially by basically buying Mayor Donner."

"Add that to the list of reasons why I'm running." Oliver said with a grin before scanning the list one more time. "The only other person that I can see on that list that would be able to control an entire city's worth of organized crime is The Triad."

"You mean China White."

"I do." Oliver confirmed as he stood and marched his way over to the list.

"Oliver, I know that you'v-"

"I've been trying to catch her since Hong Kong." Oliver said firmly. "Would I love to catch her? Yes. Is that the reason I suggest her? No. She's the head of the Triad in Starling and despite my best efforts, they've managed to remain a large part of Starling City's crime scene. I wouldn't be surprised if she had just taken over everything."

"Me neither." Felicity replied, underlining China White's name. "I just don't want you to make this personal."

"Felicity," Oliver said as he turned to look at her. "we've been doing this for six years. Villains and criminals have changed over the years and we're still here. She's the only one that has remained that long but if she's been at it this long against us, then it's just something that we may have to deal with. Compared to the likes of Ra's al Ghul and Slade Wilson, she's small potatoes."

"No potatoes more like." Felicity said with a grin. "God, now I'm hungry."

"I can order some Big Belly while we watch Diggle and Laurel on patrols."

"Sounds like a plan, my man." Felicity said, leaning up to kiss Oliver.

"You certainly are weird."

"And you love it." Felicity said as she marched back to her computer.

"That I do." Oliver said with a smile before following her.

Oliver and Felicity go over the organized crime situation in Starling City; potential candidates for the figurehead of the Starling City Mafia

* * *

Being Oliver Queen certainly had some benefits at times. Most specifically, it meant that when you decided to run for Mayor of Starling City, you could afford the best. So, as Oliver took his seat at his new campaign headquarters office on the 50th floor of Queen Consolidated, things couldn't have been better. In recent months, large parts of the Queen Consolidated banner had been spread out to other buildings around the city, leaving entire floors of the headquarters building empty.

That had made it an easy choice for a headquarters location.

Today was the day that they got started. It was also the day that he started work with the majority of his senior campaign staff. Being Oliver Queen meant that a campaign for mayor was seen as more than just your typical mayoral race. It was a platform for those whose wanted to get into national politics. You work the Queen campaign and get the former party boy with no college degree elected mayor, you start working state and national campaigns.

Oliver and Laurel had worked together to interview and select their senior staff. In a not altogether unrelated point of information, the officer for "Lance for District Attorney" just happened to be on the 49th floor of Queen Consolidated. Not only were the two close friends, they shared a lot on how they felt the future of Starling City should be. It only made sense that they helped each other out and so they would. Their goal was to basically run a joint campaign, throwing support for each other as often as they could without weakening their own campaign.

Finally, the clock struck noon and Oliver stood and made his way to the door of his office. Unlike the CEO's office, Oliver made sure that his office was entirely soundproof and had no walls made of glass.

Well, the one wall was translucent glass but that meant that he only saw shapes, not actual faces on the other side of the glass.

Reaching the door, Oliver opened it and saw that his campaign staff had assembled outside. With a wave of his hand, Oliver invited them inside. While most mayoral candidates in major cities went with massive teams of advisers, Oliver had kept the number smaller. He obviously had his campaign manager but he also had a communications director, who handled all press and media contact, and a policy director, who would help him form the basis of his message to Starling City.

Now, each of the three of them had several staff that Oliver was paying but he would never meet with them. These three would be his council, along with Felicity in a more "unofficial capacity."

The first of his campaign staff was a man from Gotham City by the name of Roman Sionis. Formerly the President of Janus Cosmetic, a company that his father had willed to him after his untimely death, the company had gone under due to the man's poor business instinct. Fortunately for Oliver, business may not have been in the man's blood but politics were. He had successfully lead the communications department for two different Gotham City mayors in the last ten years and had worked on the staff for a US Senator.

Sionis was known for being rude, brash and straight to the point. During the interview, Oliver had nearly strangled the man. However, after restraining himself, Oliver couldn't help but see that Sionis would be a great manager of his own campaign, the opposite of Oliver's too polite public face.

To counter him, Oliver had hired Peter (or Pete as he preferred to be called) Ross from Metropolis as his communications director. Pete was originally from Smallville, Kansas, the same town Clark Kent was raised in. However, Ross had gone to Metropolis University for a degree in Communications and become a speechwriter for the Mayor of Metropolis. When the Mayor had resigned six months earlier in a sex scandal, Pete had put his talents to use writing for Queen Consolidated, specifically writing speeches for Walter and Felicity. The moment that Oliver had decided to run, Pete had been hired to craft Oliver's speeches.

But it was the last person who was arguably most important to their cause was Oliver's policy adviser. Her name was Myra Connelly and she would be in charge of the conversation between Oliver and the Starling City voters. It was her job to take what Oliver stood for and work with Pete and Roman to ensure that the version of Oliver Queen they saw was one that voters would like while also being Oliver Queen.

The point of today's meeting was very simple: Oliver was going to discuss what he wanted for Starling City and the other three would turn that into a vision that Oliver could run on.

"Good afternoon." Oliver said as he took his seat behind his desk. "You've been hired and paid for seven months work in advance. That takes us up until the election. If we're good enough and lucky enough to get elected, there is the possibility of getting hired as on full time staff should you choose."

"Getting ahead of yourself, aren't you Queen?" Roman commented quickly.

"You'll find, Roman, that when I do something, I do it one hundred percent. That means that when I went through the process of deciding to become the mayor, I decided just that. I may have publicly said that I was running but when I decided to run, I decided to win."

"Fair enough." Roman replied. "So, what are the buzz words?"

"Excuse me?" Oliver asked.

"Buzz words." Pete answered. "Every campaign has them. Words that the public comes to know you by. They'll be in every speech that I write and in every commercial you film. These are the two of three topics that form the basis of your candidacy."

"Alright." Oliver said as he adjusted in his seat. "First is equality. The number of one-percenters as grown by 14% in the last five years while the number of those living under the poverty line has grown by 19%. Donner has done a good job creating growth for the city but a poor job at making sure that those who need that wealth actually receive it."

"Equality." Myra replied as she took notes. "Also, I know that you supported him previously but that's the last time you admit that Donner has done something right. The link between the two of you is strong, especially considering your support for Laurel Lance. We need to distance ourselves from him or we don't stand a chance."

"Understood." Oliver answered as he continued. "Also, better business. The city has seen an increase in GDP by almost 6% in the last decade but not in the right industries. Almost all of that growth has occurred in factory styled business. Instead, we need to seek proposals that will attract medical and technology companies to our city."

"So you want more companies like Queen Consolidated?" Pete asked.

"Exactly. I don't want more textile plants and steel factories, although I know we need some. What I want are companies that are going to bring the future to Starling City, not more of the same."

"Bringing the future to Starling City." Myra muttered before turning to the other two. "Sounds like a campaign slogan if I've ever heard of one."

"I'll get the staff working on a writeup." Roman replied before turning back to Oliver. "Anything else?"

Oliver thought for a moment. Then, he decided that he needed to bring this up now rather than later.

"Two things. First, I'm not running as a party candidate." Oliver said before raising his hands to stop the interruption of his staff. "I know it will get me better support but I'm not going to be an indentured servant to the Democratic or Republican Party."

"Fine." Myra replied. "And the other thing?"

"I'm making it publicly known that I'm not taking any donations from anyone over the basic limits. If John Doe on the streets can give me five grand, then so can any PAC that wants to donate to my cause."

"You do realize that's going to derail any spending that we may have been able to do, right?" Roman asked. "PACs are able to get us things we're not. They're able to do things for us that we're not. You're really trying to kill your campaign before it begins, aren't you?"

With that bit of information, Oliver chuckled to himself for a moment before answering Roman.

"Roman, have you seen the Forbes wealthiest people in the world list recently?" Oliver asked, intentionally being condescending. "You'll notice that my name appears just above the man who owns Nike. Now, he's worth around twenty-six billion dollars and I'm listed at an estimated net wealth of twenty-nine billion dollars which my accountants will tell you is a bit of an understatement. They list me at thirty billion."

"What's your point?"

"We don't need money." Oliver leveled with him. "I am not doing this to gain political points with other billionaires. I'm not doing this to become Governor or Senator or President. I'm doing this because under Adam Donner, Starling City has reached a glass ceiling and I know that I'm the man to break through that. So, if I have to spend a billion dollars to get myself elected, then that's what I'll do."

"You really are a bit insane, you know that right?" Roman countered before continuing. "Insane or not, I didn't sign onto this to lose and I've already gotten paid so I'll take what I've been given. Here's the counter to your requests, Queen: the three of us, we've been doing this for a while now. You are new. So, when we tell you something is a bad idea, you fucking listen. When we tell you something is a good idea, you fucking listen. We're not going to make you do something that counters what you believe but if you haven't specifically stated something here, today, and we tell you to do it, you'd better damn well put on your big boy pants and do it. Are we clear?"

"Crystal." Oliver growled.

"Good. Any questions?" Roman asked, turning to the other two. Both silently declined to continue the conversation. "Then let's get this rich fucker elected."


	3. Queen for Mayor: Bringing the future to Starling City

**Seven months later**

Oliver was sitting at his desk at campaign headquarters. Normally, he had a report to go over or a speech to fine tune or really just about anything to do. Instead, he found himself with fifteen minutes of entirely unscheduled time. Rather than fill it with something, Oliver had ordered his assistant to bar the door and hold the calls for that time.

That's how Oliver found himself sitting in his office, staring at the ceiling and wondering just what the hell was going on. Somehow, since he announced his intention to run for mayor, his life had gotten both calmer and crazier.

The strangest part was that life as The Green Arrow was the calmer one. Crime in the city was at an all-time low, there was no big bad out there to fight and Oliver spent a fair number of evenings currently at fundraisers or in meetings. Even the number of smaller masked threats were disappearing with some of them relocating to other large cities and some just disappearing off the map entirely.

Not that Felicity actually lost track of them but they had returned to or accepted normal lives, away from the life of crime that they had known previously.

Meanwhile, it looked like Oliver Queen, Mayor was becoming more and more likely. Recent exit polls had him significantly ahead of Adam Donner. The only issue was the other candidate that had come out of the woodwork, a man named Maxwell Lord. Apparently, Lord had spent the last several years working out an opposition for when Donner's term came up. He had announced his candidacy about two weeks after Oliver. During his announcement speech, he had made it seem like it was a two man race: himself and Adam Donner, leaving Oliver out of the picture entirely.

In fact, it had only been the last couple months that Lord had even started addressing Oliver publicly, something that he felt strengthened him to the public. He wouldn't be the man beaten by the money of Oliver Queen. Unfortunately for him, he'd had a campaign finance manager take plea deal for embezzling money from the campaign. Needless to say, that doesn't leave a golden reputation on your campaign, regardless of whether you had anything to do with it.

Three days from now was the final televised debate. Oliver already wasn't sleeping well and he was certain it wasn't about to get better with the debate approaching.

Suddenly, an alarm on his phone went off, signifying the end of his break time. Almost the exact second that happened, his assistant burst through the door.

"Mr. Queen?" his very polite assistant Michael asked.

"Yes, Mike, what is it?"

"You have a call from Bruce Wayne on line one." he said simply before sneaking out the door.

"Thank you." Oliver said as he left before picking up the phone. "Wayne."

_"Queen."_ Bruce growled in return.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?"

_"We need to meet. All of us."_

"What about?"

_"I'm not talking about it over the phone. Get on a plane tonight and be at Wayne Manor by tomorrow at ten."_

"Wayne, I'm in the middle of an campaign. I can't just leave."

_"Get on the damn plane. I will endorse your campaign when you get here. It will be a meeting between old friends so that you can use my star power to get yourself elected. We'll even call the press out to the house."_

"Old friends, huh?" Oliver said with a smirk.

_"Get on the damn plane."_

CLICK.

"Not very polite, are you Bruce?" Oliver said before putting down the receiver. Once he'd done that, he hit the comm button to speak with Michael. "Mike, can you get Roman in here please?"

"Certainly, sir."

In the last six months, Oliver had discovered that his intuitions had been correct. Roman Sionis was a complete asshole like the world had not yet seen. In fact, there was a part of Oliver that was strongly considering firing him before the election even happened. Regardless, there was no way that Oliver could be around the man full-time and work with him. The tactics that he sometimes suggested bordered on dirty and if Oliver was anything, dirty was no it.

Either way, the man was going to be released once the elections were finished. He just wasn't the kind of man that Oliver would surround himself with.

"What's the deal, Queen?" Roman said as he walked into the office.

"Just got a call from Bruce Wayne. He wants to support the campaign but I have to go out to Gotham to get the press footage."

"He just called you up?" Roman asked suspiciously.

"Wayne and I are friends from that deal where we submarined LexCorps' stock prices. We still talk on occasion. He's very interested in his holdings here and wants us in charge so that he can get more of his business out here."

"Then let's go."

"I'll be going alone." Oliver replied. "Both you and Myra have schedule press appointments and you can't miss them. Plus, I want Pete to keep working on those debate notes for me."

"Queen, this is-"

"This isn't really negotiable, Roman." Oliver insisted. "He'll get the press out there and work it on his end. We'll get the windfall here and things will work out fine."

"Whatever you say, Queen."

* * *

The next morning after a late flight and early morning hotel nap, Oliver's cab pulled up to the gates of Wayne Manor. After being sure that Oliver was in the vehicle, they were allowed through the gates and on to the grounds of Wayne Manor. Looking around, Oliver saw that, unlike himself, Wayne didn't appear to keep his property up for appearance's sake. Large portions of the grounds were in some state of abandonment or disrepair and much of the gardening around the grounds was overgrown and unkempt.

As the driver stopped at the front entrance, Oliver paid the driver and got out of the vehicle, retrieving the small briefcase he had kept with him for the sake of the reporters who were sure to come later. Slowly, Oliver marched up the front steps, scanning the building. Even from the outside, it was fairly easy to tell that large portions of the house weren't used. Those that were appeared to be in a state of constant chaos with open windows and random lights on throughout the house.

He'd heard the rumors but the sight was something truly to behold. While Oliver knew better, Wayne truly did live the eccentric billionaire tag well.

"Mr. Queen."

Looking down from his scanning of the building, Oliver saw that Wayne's butler stood in the doorway, posture perfect, his hands clasped behind his back.

"Yes." Oliver replied, marching quickly towards the front door. "And you are?"

"Alfred Pennyworth." he replied shortly. "Mr. Wayne has asked me to escort you downstairs."

"After you then." Oliver said with a grin.

With that, the aged Englishman turned on the spot and marched inside the house. Quickly, Oliver followed his eyes noticing everything. Alfred seemed like a man that didn't put up with much and you could tell based on the house. The parts of the house that were in use were in immaculate order, not a single speck of dust to be found. In fact, Oliver had trouble finding a single thing that looked out of order.

It look more like a display house than one that someone actually lived in.

Finally, the pair of them reached a giant grandfather clock. Quickly, the butler opened the glass front and adjusted the hands of the clock. As the hands on the clock hit 10:48, a small click was heard. Reaching his hand behind the clock, the butler pulled, revealing a hidden door behind the clock.

Obviously the butler was in on Wayne's secret.

"The rest of them are waiting downstairs." the man said quietly before slipping away. Maybe it was just a vibe but Oliver got the opinion that the man didn't care for his employer doing what he did with his evenings.

Taking the man's instructions, Oliver stepped inside the secret entrance which happened to be a staircase.

A long staircase.

Nearly five minutes later, Oliver, having thought that this whole thing may have been a practical joke (assuming Wayne had a sense of humor), finally reached his destination. Carved into the side of an underground cave was Wayne's hideout, his own Batcave as it were. Some of the equipment down there was on par with Oliver's equipment. In fact, some of it looked exactly like their equipment.

Oliver would need to talk to Felicity about their computer security when he got back to Starling.

Normally, Oliver imagined Wayne working alone down here. Today was the exception. As Oliver reached the main level of the cave, he was greeted with the faces of the Justice League.

Clark Kent, Superman.

Barry Allen, The Flash

Diana Prince of Themyscira, Wonder Woman.

John Stewart. Formerly a United State Marine, John was sent into space a year earlier on a mission to Mars with two other men. One of those men was Hal Jordan. Secretly, Jordan was a Green Lantern, a member of an intergalactic police force centered on the planet Oa. During the mission, Jordan selected Stewart as his back-up should he perish. However, Jordan defected to the Yellow Lantern Corps, a rival force centered on perpetuating fear in the galaxy. When this occurred, Stewart was given Jordan's role as this sector's Green Lantern.

He was also given a place in The Justice League at Clark's request. Obviously, Wayne had reservations but he always had reservations.

The final present member was Bruce's original sidekick, Dick Grayson. Originally a circus performer with a penchant for acrobatics, his parents were murdered by a mob boss in front of his eyes. Taking pity on him, Bruce adopted him into his home and two years earlier, he had become Robin, Batman's sidekick. About ten months earlier, Wayne and the eighteen year old had gotten into an argument and Grayson had left Wayne Manor and Robin behind, becoming Nightwing in Bludhaven.

Oliver had requested Grayson be added six months earlier. Bruce had obviously protested and even threatened to quit but ultimately went along with the group's verdict to allow Dick into the group.

There were rumors that Wayne was training another young man by the last name of Todd to be a new Robin but no one had seen him yet.

"About time you showed up, Oliver." Barry said with a grin as he approached Oliver.

"I'm sorry, some of us can't leave home an hour before a meeting across the country and get there on time."

"Oh, I had to leave an hour and a half early." Barry grinned as he shook Oliver's hand.

"Enough." Wayne barked with his back to them. "We have work to get to."

"What exactly are we here for anyway?" Clark asked.

"This." Bruce replied as a picture appeared on the giant computer screen in front of them. It was an image of their solar system with some strange lines drawn on the outer reaches of the system. Oliver was fairly certain that Bruce was the only person that knew what they were looking at.

"What is that?" Barry asked.

That confirmed his suspicion.

"This map...it is of the heavens." Diana muttered. "What are those scattered lines doing there?"

"Those are what I've been tracking for about a month now." Bruce replied, finally turning from the computer to face them. "I've been using some of Wayne Enterprise's satellite technology to monitor the skies for sometime now."

"Why?" Diana asked.

"Him." Oliver replied, pointing to Clark. "The fact that someone came from space already worries Bruce. Sure, Clark ended up being alright but what if the next time we aren't so lucky."

"Exactly." Bruce confirmed. "I've been tracking this particular mass of objects-"

"So that's what those lines are? Flight patterns?" John interjected.

"That's what I believe, yes." Bruce answered. "However, there is no evidence to suggest life. It could be a scouting party or drones or it could simply be some debris floating in atypical patterns because of some kind of electromagnetic field out there that we can't see."

"Debris?" Dick asked. "Why do you say debris? Why isn't it just a normal asteroid field or something?"

"This is why." Bruce said before tapping a button on his computer. Instantly, the picture scaled out with hundreds of additional lines being drawn throughout the galaxy. It seemed that the lines all originated from the same place before splitting up and then ending up at the same location around the edge of the own solar system.

"It's moving." Clark said in wonder. "It has to be semi-sentient, doesn't it?"

"Or controlled by something that is." Oliver added. "The lines all start at the same point. Where is that?"

The look on Bruce's face as Oliver asked that question was concerning. It seemed that Bruce was showing some form of emotion, something he was obviously not used to doing. Sitting back in his seat, Bruce rubbed his hands together before addressing them again.

"Do you notice the one exception up there?"

Instantly, the rest of them went back to scanning the image. Oliver saw nothing but he still looked. Suddenly...

"One of those lines came here." John said, pointing at the only true straight line on the map. "And it never left."

"What are these?" Oliver asked. "What exactly are you tracing?"

The answer was not from Bruce and certainly not what they expected.

"He's tracing everything out there that has a Kryptonian origin." Clark said sadly as he took a chair. "That one straight line was the pod that brought me here."

"He's right." Bruce said softly. "The moment I found out where he came from, I began reverse-engineering the crash and was able to direct where he came from in space, roughly."

"Roughly is right." Barry shot back. "That would still put you with a square area of millions of miles. How did you know this was where he was from?"

"He got smart, figured that there was a reason I was sent here and started looking into the planets in that sector and found what he was looking for?"

"What's that?" Oliver asked.

"I found a planet that roughly 33 years ago exploded but not before sending out two pods."

"Two?" Clark asked before racing to the screen. "Where's the other?"

"There." Bruce answered, pointing at the screen. "For whatever reason, it stopped moving. There may be a third one here but those are the only two I can confirm. The rest of these smaller objects formed  _after_ the destruction of Krypton which is why I think they're some form of drone or automated system."

This was almost too much. Oliver was now aware that there were aliens, space cops, men who could run faster than the speed of sound and now there was a flying army of space drones. This was nothing like what he had expected to learn when he arrived today.

"So what do we do?" Dick asked softly.

Taking a deep breath, Bruce leaned forward in his seat, ready for business.

"At this point, there's nothing we can do. Wayne Space is launching a space probe that will reach that location in only four years."

"Four years!" Barry asked before winding down quickly. "How'd you get it go so fast?"

"I allowed him to look at my ship." Clark answered for him. "He reversed engineered the thrusters to add to his probe."

"Other than the four year wait, I'm assuming there's nothing we can do?" Dick asked Bruce.

"This army of drones from the sky worries me. What if it comes for us?" Diana added.

"There's nothing we can do right now." Bruce replied. "Queen and I will push for our companies to increase space security and we'll coordinate the best we can but for now, we're in the dark. Which is why I have two more things for you."

Standing, Bruce made his way to a briefcase that he opened before turning back to the rest of them. Inside were seven small black sticks. They simply looked like flash drives.

"Wow. We're really impressed Bruce." Dick muttered softly.

"You will be." Bruce replied. "These are experimental teleporter devices. Hit the button and it will take you and anyone in contact with you here. I'm not going to explain the physics to you, just know that it bends some of the rules that we thought were steadfast."

"I will be talking the physics with you later." Barry whispered as he took one.

"These are for emergency only. They've never been tested on humans before although they have worked seamlessly with non-organic matter."

"Great. What's the other thing?" Oliver asked, suddenly having a great desire to leave.

"This is the other thing." Bruce answered, bring another image onto his computer screen. "This is The Watchtower, future home of The Justice League."

The image was blueprints of a floating fortress, a satellite base. One entire side was a glass wall, allowing them to look down on Earth, giving the Watchtower name its definition.

"Construction began six months ago and in another six months, it will be complete. Once that happens, your teleporters will be programmed to take you there."

"We're getting a satellite! That's so awesome!" Barry shouted, looking to Oliver for support.

"Cool your jets, Barry." Oliver said with a grin before turning to Bruce. "How did you pay for it?"

"Technically, it's a Wayne Enterprises' project. However, we've been able to shuttle some of the funding around in our books so that it will never be discovered by anyone who would audit our books. Also, it's got Code Black clearance so myself and our CEO are the only ones that can access it and Fox already knows about my night job."

"Good." Oliver replied before looking at his watch. "I don't mean to be rude but I need to get back so that I can start prep for the debate. Are we going to take those photos or not?"

"Let's head upstairs and I'll make the call." Bruce grumbled. "The rest of you will be kind enough to let yourselves out."

* * *

"Are you ready, Mr. Queen?" Michael asked softly.

"I don't have much a choice, now do I?" Oliver replied as Felicity finished straightening to his tie. "How do I look?"

"Just about as awful as you normally do." Felicity said with a grin. "You look fine."

The three days since Oliver's return from Gotham had been a blur of debate prep, all designed to get Oliver ready for this evening. He had some notes in front of him for the points that Oliver were sure to come up. For this debate, four of the categories were predetermined and released to the candidates ahead of time but the last two were known only to the debate facilitator.

"Ready for your run to end, Queen?"

Maxwell Lord, Oliver's only real obstacle to the office of Mayor. Lord's history with Queen Consolidated wasn't good. Previously, he had been the President of a smaller technology company that specialized in software security. About eighteen months early, Felicity had identified their programs as a target for acquisition. Quickly, Oliver and Walter worked and purchased the company, offering Lord a position as an AVP under Felicity's purview. However, Lord had bristled at the suggestion and fired in a rage.

Apparently, it was that moment that had made him decide to run for Mayor. Unfortunately for him, he hadn't expected anyone else to be running against Donner, least of all the namesake of the company that bought him out.

"We'll let the people decide." Oliver said blandly.

"People, my ass." Lord countered. "If you win this, it's all about one thing: money."

"You spent money on your campaign, I spent money on mine." Oliver said as he saw Adam Donner also appear backstage. While Oliver hated Lord, he still had a rather friendly relationship with Donner. While he didn't think Donner had done a good job as Mayor, Oliver knew that it wasn't for lack of trying.

"You did outspend us both combined, Oliver." Adam said softly as he approached Oliver and shook his hand.

"I use the resources I have like the two of you do."

"Sure." Lord said dismissively.

Finally, a voice from out in the audience announced that they were beginning before starting the introductions for the candidates.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is the third and final debate for the office of Mayor of Starling City. First, introducing our challengers: representing the Republican Party, Maxwell Lord, and running unattached, Oliver Queen."

Quickly, Oliver walked out onto the stage and approached the front of the stage, waiving to the crowd there before turning to Lord and shaking his hand roughly. As their hands met, Oliver felt Lord flex, attempting to crush Oliver's hand as he usually did. Finally, Oliver decided to respond, squeezing almost as hard as he could. The second he did that, he saw Lord's jaw flex tightly and when they broke apart, Oliver could see Lord shaking his hand as they made their way to their podiums.

Smirking, Oliver stood at his podium as they introduced Donner as the current mayor. Once he took the stage, he shook both Oliver and Lord's hand before taking his center stage podium with Oliver on his left and Lord on his right.

Finally, the debate was on. For the first two hours, Oliver held his own, proving that over the years he had grown. No longer could the public look at his as a party-boy without a college degree. Now, he was a successful former CEO who had rebuilt his company into the most profitable in the country after the revelation that Moira Queen had been involved in Malcolm Merlyn's Undertaking.

Conversations on city tax increases went Donner's way, a debate on future city business obviously went to Oliver. Lord obviously controlled the conversation on crime and Donner and Oliver split the discussion of programs to assist the impoverished of Starling City. The first of the random questions was a conversation on proposed city council reform that Lord dominated.

Basically, the evening had been a wash leading into the final topic. While this debate wasn't an end all, be all, it certainly would be a good way for whoever came out on top to dominate the vote next week.

Finally, the debate moderator asked the last question.

"Each candidate will get on minute to answer this question with a four minute open period to follow the last answer." he said firmly. "The question is as follows: Starling City is home to a group of people. Some call them heroes, others call them vigilantes and other still call them murderers. The Green Arrow has been active in our city for nearly six and a half years with others joining him at various times over that time frame. As Mayor of our city, you are the executive officer of this city's safety. In one minute, tell us your view on The Green Arrow and how you intend to work with or again him."

Of all the questions that had to be asked, this was the worst. Never before had Oliver Queen been publicly challenged on the matter of The Green Arrow, not like this.

"Mr. Lord, you are up first."

"Thank you, sir." Lord said, his voice smooth as silk. "The Green Arrow is a criminal nothing more. I remember the day when we used to call him The Hood. He's a murderer, nothing more. When I am elected Mayor, I am doing what we should have done years ago and that is re-instituting the Vigilante Task Force. Nothing will stop us from bringing that vigilante to justice for the terror he has caused in this city. Before my time is up, I would like to thank you all again for your support."

A small amount of applause rang out through the small auditorium before the moderator indicated to Donner that he would be next.

"The Green Arrow is no murderer. In the past, The Green Arrow was at odds with our city but without him, Malcolm Merlyn and Slade Wilson would have destroyed the entire city. Without him, we would still be under the control of Ra's al Ghul. The Green Arrow is a hero for our great city and a beacon of hope that we can look to in times of darkness. I believe in The Green Arrow and you should too."

This time, the applause was more excited with some cheering even thrown in. That may have been because Donner was less of a scumbag than Lord was. Finally, it was Oliver's turn to speak.

"When I came back from the island, I was kidnapped by some thugs and The Green Arrow saved me. Do I always approve of The Green Arrow? No. At times I think he's gone too far in his pursuit of his own brand of justice. But I do believe he's learned. The number of deaths that he's caused over the years has gone down. But I think the fact that we need The Green Arrow says more about us than it does about him. I hope that one day, we don't need him anymore and he can leave our city alone."

Finally, he was done and the audience, as they had each time he spoke, went crazy. To say he was the people's candidate was an understatement, ironic considering his individual wealth was almost as much as the rest of the city put together.

"You may now address each other." the moderator said. The moment he spoke, Lord turned to him. "Mr. Queen, you were saved by the Hood, you say. You are aware that he killed the men that kidnapped you. Three of the four men had families and one of them had a newborn. That's the man that you want saving your city?"

"Apparently, Mr. Lord, you weren't listening very well." Oliver countered. "I don't want The Green Arrow in our city at all. I don't appreciate his methods and he gets in the way of our fine police force. But I also understand that the police couldn't handle someone like Danny Brickwell or Slade Wilson. So for the time being, he's needed. However, it is my goal to make Starling City a place where The Green Arrow was no longer needed."

"We'll always need the Green Arrow." Donner replied. "He's the protector of our city."

"I certainly hope not." Oliver answered.

"I don't understand how the two of you can stand there and expect to be the leader of this city when you're publicly supporting a criminal."

"I think you may be in the minority there, Mr. Lord." Oliver said before pulling a file out. "When I decided to run for Mayor, I had several different studies run. The first polled nearly 10,000 Starling City citizens on The Green Arrow. 74% of those polled completely supported Green Arrow, 20% support him as a necessity like myself. Only 6% of those polled were against the presence of The Green Arrow."

Again, Oliver pulled out another file.

"This study showed that nationally, 66% of the country supports The Justice League. Even Batman, the hero with the lowest support rate, is still supported by 53% of the national population. Superman is supported by 91% of the national population."

Finally, Oliver removed his final file and set it down in front of him.

"However, this study was not as positive. You see, this was a study of 6,000 Starling City registered votes. All of them were Republicans. 69% of these people support The Green Arrow in some way, shape or form. Now, these are people who would typically vote for you, Mr. Lord, and even  _they_ support him. So, my question is this: how is it that you can stand there and expect to be the leader of this city when you're publicly condemning a man that this city is almost entirely in favor of?"

In his life as The Green Arrow, Oliver had always prided himself on being prepared. This was no different. The look on Lord's face as Oliver took him to task was priceless. Maybe it was paranoia but Oliver had considered The Green Arrow as a potential speaking point.

Good thing that Felicity was as good a researcher as she was.

"I'm sorry, gentlemen, but our time is up for the evening." the moderator said before Lord could say anything. "I would like to thank the three of you for participating in tonight's exercises and good luck to all of you."

* * *

The night of the election left Oliver too nervous to sit still. In a rare flash decision, Oliver left the office to "clear his head" as they announced the votes around the city. Early in the evening, Oliver had jumped out to a slight lead that had held but some of the richer districts in the city had yet to report.

So, Oliver went to "clear his head."

Wearing green leather.

"Sentry, how are we doing?"

_"Up 6% right now with 44% of the districts reporting. Donner has basically fallen out of the race at this point."_

"It's down to two." Oliver muttered. "So you're certain about this information?"

_"Oliver..."_

"We've never gotten information on her ahead of time." Oliver replied before she could finish scolding him.

_"The city has never been quiet enough that we could make her our first priority."_ Felicity answered.  _"Now, China White has apparently been hiding out in the penthouse apartment at Starling Heights."_

"Hood and BC, are you in place?"

_"Confirmed."_ Diggle replied.  _"I've got eyes on."_

"Just keep that sniper rifle ready to go." Oliver replied. "BC?"

_"In place with eyes on."_ Laurel answered.  _"Can we ask why the two of us are positioned on buildings watching you?"_

"Because I've been searching for evidence on this woman for nearly eight years. I've got you here to back me up but I'm bringing her in on my own."

The day before, Oliver and Laurel had intercepted a shipment of guns meant for China White's Triad. While they gave the SCPD the information, Oliver had been able to convince Pike to allow them to take her down. They would take her down and bring her to the SCPD but she would give them any information she had first.

_"Whatever you say, boss."_ Laurel joked.

"How did you talk your way out of the office?"

_"Private family dinner."_

_"Canary, I don't mean to be rude..."_ Diggle started.

_"Hood, you guys are my family. They think I'm at Queen Mansion and if they checked, my car would be there."_

"Glad we're involved in your fibbing." Oliver said before standing from his perch. Taking a deep breath, Oliver drew his bow and fired a zipline arrow. The arrow flew nearly fifty yards through the air before it struck the side of the Starling Heights building, giving Oliver a perfect shot to crash through the window when the time came. "We've discussed this. I'm going in. When I do, you two are officially on watchout for anyone else. If they try to get between me and White, you put them down but do not kill them. Clear?"

_"Crystal."_

_"As mud."_

"Fantastic." Oliver said before attaching his bow to the line. Taking a breath, Oliver stepped off the building and instantly began rocketing towards the high-rise apartment. Just before Oliver hit the wall, Oliver detached, letting his fall for a second before he crashed into the window. Rolling the second he hit the ground, Oliver quickly stood and drew his bow, quickly taking out two guards and a third tried to attack him from behind.

Tried being the keyword as Oliver quickly knocked his legs out from under him before stepping on his arm, breaking it in at least one place.

"The Green Arrow."

Her voice was like velvet, smooth as could be. Slowly, Oliver turned around to see her standing there, knives in hand. It seemed that even in her home, she was prepared for an attack.

"Chien Na Wei."

"We both know you don't call me that anymore, Queen."

"I was unaware that you knew who I was." Oliver said nervously.

"I knew, didn't care. Who you are under that mask is no matter to me and no one ever asked."

"When did you know?"

"The moment you returned from that island." China White said softly. "I remembered you from Hong Kong."

"Figured as much." Oliver said with a grin before removing his hood. "We both know that you aren't in charge around here any more, Chien. Tell me who is and I'll let you go."

"And renege on that deal you made with the SCPD, unlikely."

"You're making this harder on yourself than you need to." Oliver scolded. "You're good and you know it. But you're not better than my team and you know that too. Now, you help me and I'll help you."

"What makes you think that I need your help?"

Finally, Oliver took a seat in the chair next to her.

"Because, if you don't agree to my deal, I'll order on my teammates to shoot you in the leg. Then, I'll call Pike up here and they'll put you away for the rest of your life. You're in your mid-forties now. That's probably nearly fifty years in jail. Do you really want that?"

"And what other option are you proposing?"

"I know for a fact that you are basically the second in command of the Starling City organized crime scene. You give me the name and I can get you in a much better situation. You give me a name and evidence and I'll get you into ARGUS."

"Why in the hell would I want to work with ARGUS?" China White shouted. "They've been hunting me for years!"

"Have you ever heard of Task Force X?" When Oliver saw that she hadn't, he continued. "Not surprising, Waller does a good job of keeping her information private. It is a secret task force full of former criminals. You take Waller's missions and do her dirty work. It's been affectionately nicknamed the Suicide Squad. You do that work and every year you serve on the force counts for eight years of normal incarceration. Now, you can go to Starling Heights and never leave your cell until you die or you can go to ARGUS and be out of prison in around six years."

"Six years?" she asked in shock.

"That's our deal. You give me what I want, I make sure you do Waller's work for six years and then you're back on the street and more than likely I'm chasing after you again."

"You'll still be slinging your old bones around Starling City in six years?"

Oliver hadn't thought of that. In the life of a superhero, six years seemed like forever.

"We'll see. Now, what do you say?"

For a couple seconds, she thought silently to herself. Finally, she collapsed into the chair next to Oliver.

"I'm sure you already have some information on him but the man at the top is Tobias White. If you go to an office building at 54912 Kelly Avenue, you'll find all of the information that I have on him. It won't put him away forever but it will get him off the streets and it may lead you to some new information." Ch

"Sentry?" Oliver asked.

_"Already working on it."_

"Good." Oliver answered before turning back to China White. "I'll contact Waller and she'll have an agent here to escort you to your facility. I'll inform SCPD what's happened and that you are cooperating fully."

"I'm sure you will." China White replied, seemingly amused with the situation.

Standing, Oliver replaced the hood on his head and made his way towards the window before stopping. Something just didn't feel right to him. Turning, he addressed China White again.

"We've been doing this for years. You've known my identity and I've known yours. I don't even know how many times I've come across you working for someone and working on your own for years. Why now?"

China White sat in her seat, her eyes locked on Oliver. Suddenly, she looked down at the floor, displaying a weakness that Oliver had never seen from her before.

"I am dying." she muttered softly before looking back up at him, tears in her eyes. "Neuroendocrine pancreatic cancer. I'm still only at stage I so I have basically a five-year shelf life."

This information shocked Oliver. Seated before him was a woman that he hated. She was as physical a reputation of his life as The Green Arrow as there was. And yet, Oliver couldn't help but feel a small bit of sympathy for the woman, an emotion he never thought he would associate with her.

"When you look at the end, you think about what you've done. You think about what you've achieved." she said, staring around the room. "I wouldn't take back what I've done. I was able to provide for my family back in Hong Kong. My daughters goes to the best private school in Taiwan and my son is one of South Korea's most sought after young attorneys. They have no idea I'm still alive, they think that the money they earned to go through school was a trust that I earned before I died."

"You faked your death?"

"Before I left for Hong Kong years ago to kill Edward Fyers." she answered shortly.

"You were fleeing? Why?"

"My skillset is not exactly conducive to family life. I love my children very much but I never wanted them to be hurt because of what I do. So, I faked a plane crash and then left the country. I've been to Hong Kong but never back to China itself."

Suddenly, Oliver saw Diggle and Lyla out of the corner of his eye. Smirking, Oliver turned to them.

"Na Wei, this is John Diggle and Lyla Michaels." Oliver said softly. "They are a pair of ARGUS' best and they will escort you to your holding location. I will see to it that the money that you earn as a member of the Suicide Squad is set aside to help you with your medical expenses."

"Set it aside for my children. I've earned my condemnation."

"Never thought I'd hear her say that." Diggle muttered.

"You don't get to judge me." she said softly before looking back at Oliver. "Thank you for your behavior, Oliver Queen."

"Take her." Oliver said softly to Diggle and Lyla. "I have an election party to get to."

* * *

Just as the elevator stopped, Oliver finished tying his tie. The moment the doors opened, he and Felicity stepped out to see that the floor was almost entirely full. Apparently, people wanted to be there for some reason and so every volunteer and staff member that had worked the campaign was present for the announcement. Suddenly, the crowd seemed to realize that Oliver had appeared and started cheering. Shaking hands, Oliver pushed his way to the front where Myra was waiting for him.

"I shut off the radio on the way over." Oliver said, covering for himself. "Where are we at?"

"82% of the votes have been tallied." she replied, checking a sheet in front of her. "You're currently at 54%, Lord at 40% and Donner at 6%. Roman has actually been in contact with Donner's Chief of Staff. He should be calling soon."

"Mathematically, what are our odds?"

"The odds of the last 18% going at least 15% to Lord and 3% to you are very small." Felicity said quickly.

"She's right." Myra agreed. "Especially considering that Donner is bound to get something with the votes at the location closest to City Hall still be counted since it's the highest population center in the city."

"Alright, well I'm not saying anything until we're certain." Oliver said before turning to Felicity. "I'm going to go greet some more staff. You coming with me?"

"Of course I'm coming with you." Felicity said with a grin. "Do you think you're leaving me here alone? All these ladies in here are still after me."

"That happened one time."

"That you know of." Felicity muttered.

"It happened more than once?" Oliver asked.

"I'm a moderately attractive woman who is the President of a Fortune 500 whose boyfriend is the eighth wealthiest man in America and soon to be Mayor of Starling City. Needless to say, some people are jealous."

"You are gorgeous, Felicity."

"I said all that and all you heard me say was that I was mildly attractive."

"You said you were moderately attractive and you know that I hate it when you say stuff like that. Knock it off, alright?"

"Yes, Mr. Mayor." Felicity said jokingly before leaning up and kissing him on the cheek.

"Not yet." Oliver said. "I'm not about to jinx that."

"Then let's get to talking and shaking some hands" Felicity said before leading Oliver away.

* * *

After nearly another two hours of talking with staffers and volunteers, Oliver got a tap on the shoulder. Turning, he saw Roman behind him.

"Lord is on the phone."

"And Donner?"

"I'll get him on the phone later." Roman replied. "We have enough to do without worrying about that."

"Alright." Oliver said as he started making his way back to his office. After several minutes of pushing way through the crowd, he was back in his office, alone and ready to talk to Lord. Taking a deep breath, Oliver picked up his receiver.

"Oliver Queen."

_"I'm going to make this very short and very sweet. I'm supposed to call you and say that I'm conceding so this is what I'm doing."_

"I appreciate it." Oliver said, shaking his head in disbelief. "Anything else?"

_"Politics is dirty, Queen. I know you don't want to admit it but you'll see. I just hope you can keep your family safe from it all."_

"Is that a threat, Lord?"

_"Not at all. I hope for your family's safety every day. Have a good night, Queen. I'm sure it will be your last good one in awhile."_

And just like that, the line went dead.

"Well, that was a waste of time." Oliver mumbled to himself. Noticing the TV on in the corner of his office, Oliver turned the volume up.

_"...point late in the evening, we can officially call the race for Mayor. With 65% of the total vote, Oliver Queen will be the next Mayor of Starling City."_

Suddenly, the door to his office burst open and a blur that he could only barely recognized as Felicity jumped into his arms, kissing him repeatedly in between shouts of joy.

"YOU DID IT!" she screamed repeatedly as she hugged him.

Fighting her off, Oliver said the only thing that came into his head.

"Oliver Queen, recently-elected Mayor of Starling City, strangled by his girlfriend's celebratory hugs in the post-election celebration." Oliver mumbled into her ear, a wide grin on his face.

"Oh shut your trap." Felicity said as she finally released him. "I suppose we should get you out there. I mean, if we don't, they're going to think that we're doing bad things in here. I mean, they're very good things but it's not really appropriate to do it here. Not that that stopped us that one time-"

"Felicity." Oliver said warningly. "We weren't mentioning that to anyone, remember?"

"Yes!" Felicity said suddenly. "Definitely! We did not have sex in your office. Nope, didn't happen...and we definitely didn't do it in my office seventeen floors up either. Nope, never happened."

"You are too adorable." Oliver said before leaning in and locking lips with Felicity. "Good thing that I do know that you can keep a secret."

"Most definitely." Felicity said before taking Oliver's hand and leading him out of the office. The moment they walked out of his office door, the noise was almost unbearable. The cheering from the crowd gathered had reached its fever pitch and still building. Adopting his public persona, Oliver shook hands all the way up to the stage they had set up for press events and evenings like this.

As Oliver walked towards the front, he suddenly realized that this was all real. He had actually been elected Mayor. His home city had entrusted him with the future of his city. But not as The Green Arrow, but as Oliver Queen. Despite everything he had accomplished in his life, this may have been Oliver's favorite moment. Finally, he wasn't being recognized for being a hero but just for being him.

It felt good.

Finally, Oliver reached the podium and had to stand there for nearly five minutes as he just couldn't get the audience to stop cheering. Eventually, whether it be a desire to hear him speak or just exhaustion, they finally stopped and Oliver was able to speak. Looking towards the back of the room, Oliver finally noticed the army of reporters taking their place at the back of the room. Realizing that this was his platform to speak to Starling City, Oliver smiled before beginning his speech.

"Thank you, thank you." Oliver started. "First, let me thank the voters of Starling City for coming out and supporting me. None of this would have been possible had you not stepped forward and made your opinion known. Secondly, I thank my competitors, Maxwell Lord and Adam Donner. I have already spoken with Maxwell this evening and he was every bit as gracious as you would have expected from a man of his stature."

Oliver gritted his teeth at the thought of Lord. But then, Oliver remembered that he had won the election and Lord's petty behavior stung a bit less.

"I will be speaking with current Mayor Donner repeatedly over the next few days as we work towards the transition date just after the first of the year. Adam and I are still good friends and he is someone that I will count on as an adviser moving forward. However, I will be my own Mayor as I was my own man. That is the most that I have taken out of this whole process. I spent my years before the boatwreck as a fool, irresponsible and stupid. Upon my return, I found that much had changed about Starling and about myself. As a result, I didn't know where to fit in and so I tried to return to my old ways."

Oliver thought about the nightclub that he had started when he returned. Now, it was run by a member of the Queen Consolidated family who Oliver didn't even know. All he knew was that he could go there and still get in for free.

"Obviously, that didn't work. Instead, I returned to Queen Consolidated and began work there. QC thrived under my reign until the death of my close friend Sara Lance forced me out of the position. But at that point, I realized that the people of Starling City appreciated the version of me that had come after the island. So, I became more active in the city and the city responded greatly. It was about this time last November that QC President, and admittedly my girlfriend, Felicity Smoak suggested that I run for Mayor."

With the mention of her, Oliver quickly peaked towards her and saw that she was turning an appropriate red with slight tears in her eyes.

"This never would have happened without her pushing me to consider the idea." Oliver said, doing his best to express his love for her with his eyes. "And now, here we are. I'd like to thank my campaign staff. Without them, none of this would have been possible. Finally, I speak to everyone in Starling City. Whether or not you voted for me, I will be a mayor that you can be proud of. I will work to make Starling City a better place so that we can have this city continue to be a place where we are proud to raise our children."

With this, the room exploded in applause. For nearly another minute, Oliver stood at the podium and just basked in the praise of his fellow citizens. Finally, the room went quiet and allowed Oliver to finish his address.

"I am ready to get to work for Starling City. Throughout my campaign, we used the slogan "bringing the future to Starling City." Well, the future is now and I hope you're ready for the wonderful things that we're going to bring to you."

* * *

Nearly five hours later and just before the sun was scheduled to rise that morning, Oliver and Felicity were finally the only people left at the campaign office. Oliver had spent nearly and hour of the evening on the phone with Adam, discussing time tables for certain transition events. Finally, Oliver had waited until everyone had left before retreating to his office.

"I may just sleep on my desk tonight." Oliver said, his eyes closing as he leaned back in his chair.

"If you do that, I'm leaving you." Felicity joked as she came and sat on Oliver's lap before leaning backwards so that her back rested on Oliver's chest. This kind of proximity was something that they just couldn't get away with during a normal day. Sometimes it drove Oliver crazy to not be this close to her but he understood.

"Then, I suppose I'll have to take you home."

"I suppose you will."

For the next several minutes, the two of them just sat there, allowing the silence to just envelop them. They rarely got the opportunity for things to just be quiet and so they simply sat there.

"What's on your mind, Oliver?"

"How did you know that there was something on my mind?"

"Seriously?" Felicity asked as she rotated her head to make eye contact with Oliver.

"Fair enough." Oliver said. "It's been a couple days now."

"Since the debate?"

"Are you psychic or something?" Oliver replied, mildly stunned that she had gotten it correct.

"I saw how you answered that question." Felicity reasoned. "Your answer was...interesting."

The question...The Green Arrow question.

"It started as a political question. It ended up me seriously thinking about the hood." Oliver replied. "Between that and China White tonight, I've just been thinking."

"Thinking what?"

"I've been thinking...that maybe I don't need to do it anymore."

For a second, Felicity sat still. Then, she stood up and turned around, sitting on Oliver's desk.

"Are you serious?"

"Yes." Oliver said before instantly recovering. "Maybe. I'm not sure! I don't want to do this forever. We took China White and the big news story of the evening was evidence revealing that Tobias White as the  _kingpin_ of Starling crime. He's going away for a long time now. Slade is dead, Ra's is dead, Tommy and Malcolm are dead. Who's left to face?"

"How about the next wacko that comes out of the loony bin?" Felicity asked.

"China White said something tonight that stuck with me. She said that the life she led wasn't conducive to having a family life. We've made things work for now but the future is different. I want to marry you, Felicity. I want to have children with you and I can't do that knowing that I have to leave them every evening to go patrol the city. Meanwhile, I'm the Mayor of Starling City now."

"What does that have to do with this?"

"This is a platform for me to help the city. Not as the Green Arrow but as Oliver Queen. Do you realize what that means? I'm trusted to help this city as myself. No need for a mask. Maybe I can save the city without the mask."

"What about Diggle and Laurel?"

"What about them? If they wanted to stop, they could have done that whenever." Oliver replied. "I'm not their boss, I'm their partner."

"And what about me?"

"What about you?" Oliver asked.

"I can't help Starling City like you, Oliver. I'm not the Mayor and I'm not the CEO of QC." Felicity said. "I don't get to impact the city like you do without being Sentry."

"I don't know, Felicity." Oliver admitted. "I really don't. I'm not going to quit tomorrow or the next day. Hell, I may be another ten years before I decide to hang up the hood. But we both know that despite me being in great shape, I am still just a man and I can't stay in the shape to do this forever."

"And I'm not asking you to do it forever. Hell, I'm not even really asking you to continue if you're really against it." Felicity replied. "I just think that you're having a career crisis. You would quit for a little bit and then realize that you missed doing it."

As was always the case, Oliver knew that she was probably right. However, the thought remained in Oliver's head. This was the first time he really remembered even considering hanging up the hood. Is it possible that his time as The Green Arrow was coming to an end? Even to Oliver, the thought still seemed insane but then he remembered that the crime rate in the city was the lowest in recent history and that since Ra's al Ghul's death and his daughters' capture, there was no massive threat out there hanging anymore.

It just didn't seem like the city needed The Green Arrow anymore. Now, they need Oliver Queen.

"Let's go home, Oliver." Felicity said before placing a hand on Oliver's cheek. "We've got a busy couple days ahead of us."

"Yeah." Oliver muttered as he stood.

Silently, the pair of them collected their things and made their way out of the office. Thirty minutes later, Oliver was laying in bed with Felicity cuddled up next to him, her cold feet pressed against his legs like usual. Try as he might, Oliver's mind wouldn't shut off. Instead, he simply laid there and thought about China White. A lifelong criminal, all she had wanted at the end of her life was the opportunity to provide for her children.

Would that be Oliver? An old man still wearing a hood and shooting arrows at the random criminals of Starling City. Would he actually be able to have children living the life that he led? Despite the fact that he knew that he had a long couple days ahead of him, these questions plagued Oliver into the early morning until long after the sun had risen.

Finally, Oliver realized the true question, the one that would define his internal conversation.

Who was more important to Starling City: The Green Arrow or Oliver Queen? Despite his best efforts to shut off his mind, the debate raged on.


	4. From CEO to the Mayor's Office

In the weeks after the election, Oliver had hardly had a minute to breath. As a result, his thoughts on the future of The Green Arrow remained unanswered. Instead, he went on patrols as often as possible as he slowly started the transition from wealthy business magnate to mayor of Starling City.

Three days before Christmas, Oliver received a call from a number that he didn't recognize. Wary, Oliver answered the phone.

"Hello?" Oliver said nervously.

_"Oliver, glad you answered. This is Ray."_

"Roy?" Oliver asked, now confused because he had Roy's number memorized.

_"Not quite, Oliver. Ray, Ray Palmer. You know, CEO of the company with your family's name on it."_

"Oh! Ray!" Oliver said, doing his best to recover from his slip. "I'm sorry, you caught me off guard."

_"Not surprised. I haven't really talked to you since the transition."_

"Not to belittle you but I've had other things going on. As long as you aren't burying QC, you probably won't hear from me much at all."

_"That's not a problem, Oliver. However, I did want to have a meeting with you and Felicity before you take office."_

"I think we can make that happen." Oliver said before leaning his head out of his office door. "Michael, can we fit a meeting in with Ray Palmer today?"

"Let me check." Michael replied before accessing Oliver's online calendar. "Yeah, it looks like you actually have a fairly free afternoon. Any time after two works."

"Thanks." Oliver said before readdressing Ray. "Check with Felicity's schedule and if she has a free time after two, schedule it."

_"Will do, Oliver. I'll see you this afternoon."_

* * *

Try as he might, Oliver couldn't remember the last time he had been in this office. More than likely, it was just prior to the press conference where he had announced his resignation as CEO of Queen Consolidated. Either way, Oliver and Felicity sat quietly in the office while waiting for Ray Palmer to actually show up.

Ironically, this is what it was probably like to wait for Oliver when he was late for a meeting.

"Is Palmer typically late?" Oliver asked Felicity.

"He's not late." Felicity said, checking the time on her phone. "Meeting was at 2:30 and that's 2:45 on Ray time."

"I figured as much." Oliver replied as he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. Sure enough, it was Ray Palmer himself, marching in.

"Sorry, I'm late." Ray said as he came in and took a seat behind his desk. "I think I just worked with our Medical department to vastly improve the effectiveness of our cancer treatment drugs. Working on that kind of stuff makes you lose track of time, am I right?"

"I guess." Oliver said, a slight grin on his face. "I didn't even think to ask what this meeting was about."

"I'll tell you in a second." Ray whispered before standing up and meeting his assistant at the door. "No, they do not need any coffee. However, I do need this file taken directly to the server room right away. They'll be expecting you. They're going to look over it and then send it back up with you for my approval once they've approved it. Understood?"

"Yes, Mr. Palmer." his assistant said before disappearing towards the elevator. Quickly, Ray made his way back to his seat where he began talking.

"Thanks for coming," Ray said, although his eyes had not left the door behind him. "I couldn't wait to meet with you, blah blah blah blah blah." Suddenly, Oliver could hear the sound of the elevator dinging, signifying its arrival at the top floor. For a few seconds, Palmer simply sat and watched the door.

Finally, whatever Ray had been waiting for had passed as he turned back to Oliver and Felicity with a grin on his face.

"Alright, so Green Arrow and Sentry, I'm glad you could take this meeting."

Suddenly, Oliver felt that the room was very warm. Also, Oliver's legs got very restless as he began to squirm in his seat.

"Ray, I think-"

"Oliver, I know that you're about to go into some very practiced speech about how you're not the Arrow and you were acquitted of those charges years ago and blah blah blah. Can we just cut through that? I sent my assistant on some BS mission to the server room because it's in the basement. That should give us roughly 14 minutes to have this conversation before she returns."

Well, this was certainly not a side of Ray that Oliver had seen in the interview process with Walter. Mildly intrigued, Oliver moved forward.

"Alright, say I am the Green Arrow. Why did you call us here?" Oliver asked.

"Oliver, I have so much proof that you're the Green Arrow that I could get you sent to prison until your grandchildren pass away." Ray countered quickly. "As for you, Ms. Smoak, you are obviously a little tougher to pin down. However, the radio system that you use, while very good, is not exactly impenetrable. Plus, you still sound like you on it."

"How did you hack it?" Felicity asked in concern.

"After looking into The Green Arrow, I did the math. He has obviously always been very concerned about the Queen Family. He saved Oliver Queen, he's gone after Moira Queen a few times and was there to save Thea Queen and Roy Harper on numerous occasions. He's always worked very closely with our new district attorney, Laurel Lance, and five years ago, The Arrow got a new running partner right about the same time that Sara Lance came back from the dead.  _Then,_ she disappeared for a few weeks right around the time that Sara Lance died in a motorcycle accident."

"What's your point, Ray?"

"My point is that it smelled like Queen so, as QC's CEO, I started digging. Turns out that our equipment here can be used to tap into your systems. And by can, I mean could, I've seen to it that the security needed to get through to your systems now would need someone on your level, Felicity, to get into it. It may make a bit more of a pain to access it remotely but I figured you would appreciate the fix."

Oliver's head was spinning. Ray Palmer was no average man, that much had been certain from their interview with him. He had been glad that he had recorded all of the interviews because he actually had to show that one to Felicity so that he could understand even 1% of what the man had been talking about. However, Ray's curiosity now had Oliver worried. Was he going to try and blackmail them? Or had Oliver just unknowingly hired another Isabel Rochev, someone whose only desire for running QC was to run it into the ground.

"So you know, Ray, what now?"

"Now, you help me." Ray said before hitting a button on the underside of his desk. As he did, the room went black and a projector lit up the room, coming out of the floor. What it projected was amazing: a suit of body armor that looked like it belonged in some sort of science fiction movie.

"This is a blueprint for something I've been working on. Originally, it was an android network system code-named OMAC for Observational Metahuman Activity Construct. Ms. Smoak approved the plans after the particle accelerator incident in Central City proved to have created a number of people with exceptional abilities, including your friend, Barry Allen."

Quickly, Oliver looked at Felicity before snapping back to Ray.

"We can do the math on that one later." Ray replied before resuming his gaze on the projection. "Besides, your secret is safe with me. Either way, the program would have been remarkably expensive and kind of a possible invasion of privacy. Either way, neither her or I liked the idea so within days of my taking over here, we scrapped the plans."

Suddenly, the projection changed with the image shrinking in size until Oliver could hardly see it anymore.

"However, when she and Applied Sciences had come up with the designs, they realized that the amount of processor support to operate this system would have been massive. Basically, this android system would have been a hive-mind of like model androids with the ability to sense and incapacitate rogue metahumans. Like I said, the processor support would have needed to be massive so Applied Sciences came up with a model to shrink the components of the processors themselves. Now, we are not talking about just using smaller parts."

"What are you talking about?" Oliver asked in confusion.

"Using fragments of white dwarf stars that had fallen to Earth, we were able to come with a way to literally shrink things." Felicity answered for Ray. "Basically, and we still aren't 100% sure how this is possible, a white dwarf star occupies less space than its volume should be able to. Its density is almost impossible to imagine. However, using the same characteristics of the white dwarf star particles, we were able to come up with a process that would energize matter using the energy of the white dwarf star to shrink them."

"Exactly." Ray said before standing and making his way to the projection. "That's what this exosuit does. Once I discovered this, I was re-purposed OMAC, not as an android but as an exosuit. It retains all of the previous abilities of the android, increased stamina and strength, mild flight abilities, while also have worked in the energizing process of the white dwarf star. This means that at a normal size, the wearer is every bit the man or woman that you usually are  _plus_ some but it also gives you the ability to shrink down to the size of a six inches, giving me an option for stealth where it is necessary."

"You?" Oliver questioned.

"Honestly, that is the biggest reason why I called the two of you up here." Ray said as he returned to his seat. Another press of the button and the room returned to normal. "You're taking the Mayor's office soon and we both know there are going to be times when The Green Arrow will be at a press conference or a banquet or any number of places where the Mayor of Starling City just can't disappear."

"So you're going to go out there in this suit?" Oliver asked skeptically. "Ray, I don't mean to be a downer but it's more than just throwing on a suit and calling yourself a hero. Even those this...what exactly do you call that?"

"That model is The  **A** dvanced  **T** echnological  **O** perating  **M** echanism."

"The Atom." Felicity whispered, mostly to herself, before looking back at Ray. "Ray, this life we lead. It isn't a glamorous one. There are a lot of sacrifices to be made. Family, friends, a normal life: those things don't happen when you do what we do."

"I'm aware." Ray replied firmly. "And don't get me wrong, Oliver, I know that I'm no hero. Right now, I'm a man in a suit of armor. What I need from you to become more than that."

"You want training." Oliver said shortly.

"I do." Ray confirmed. "I want to know that before I would go out there wearing ATOM that, if for whatever reason the suit failed, I am still capable."

"That's the thing, Ray. It's not about the suit...or the hood. Or the bow and arrow. It's not about the bike or the bo staff or the knives." Oliver said before standing up and pacing the office for a second. Finally, he turned to Ray and finished his thought. "It's about this." Oliver said, pointing at his heart. "It's about having something to fight for. You're going to get knocked around, things are going to go wrong and plans are generally going to get fucked up. If you don't have the heart to overcome those things, you or the people you love or the city you protect, they die."

"I have that heart." Ray said firmly.

"How can I know that?" Oliver challenged. The fact that Oliver was even considering this had Oliver on edge. Rarely was it that someone caught him off guard and that alone made him respect Ray. But like Oliver said, if the man simply didn't have the heart to fight for his city, then there was nothing that could be done. "I'm just supposed to let you out there with me and my team? I can train you all I want but if that fire isn't there, there's nothing I can do."

"Oliver, I can promise you, without a shadow of a doubt, that I have that fire." Ray said, his voice dropping its normal cheery nature.

"HOW CAN I KNOW THAT?" Oliver shouted, pounding on Ray's desk, causing Felicity to flinch next to him.

**"BECAUSE SHE'S DEAD!"**

There it was. The fire was most certainly there. Standing before him, rage in his eyes, was a man that would fight for his city. Oliver didn't need anymore convincing. However, he would need information.

"Talk."

"A little over five years ago now, Slade Wilson attacked the city." Ray said, his voice dull as he took his seat. "His soldiers swept high and low, killing indiscriminately. Of course, I had no idea at the time how bad things were going to get that night."

As Ray spoke, Oliver was instantly transported back to the horror of that night. While Ra's may have caused more death, Slade's siege of the city was personal. Each death was directed at Oliver Jonas Queen and Oliver had a bad feeling that he was going to be included in another story of death from that night.

"My fiance, Ana and I, were walking back from dinner. We were in the financial district, normally the safest part of the city, when out of nowhere, these men in orange and black masks come racing down the street. One of the grabbed a man and just threw him, like a doll, into a second story window. We could hear his bones crunch as he smashed against the bulletproof glass. I did my best to hold them off but one of them caught me from behind and broke my leg."

Watching, Oliver could tell that Ray was no longer in the room. His eyes were dark and lifeless as he was transported back to that evening. It was a look that Oliver had frequently seen in himself and it had only been recently that he had been able to get over.

"I watched...I begged and pleaded with them but they wouldn't listen." Ray said, his eyes glistening with held back tears. "One of them grabbed her and threw her to the ground. Another grabbed me and held my head up. Her head was bleeding from where they thrown her down. I knew what was going to happen and I couldn't stop it. I fought, I called out for her but I wasn't strong enough. They made me watch as they raped her."

At this point, Ray was very much back in the room, his normal cheery voice replaced with something far more likely to come out of Oliver's mouth.

"They took turns, all three of them. One held her down, one made me watch and another had their way with her. I don't know how long it took but when they were done, they took a large knife and stabbed her in the back. They left me there to watch her die. With the madness that was going on, there was no EMS, no paramedics. Despite my leg, I crawled over to her and I stayed with her. She told me to never give up and to never let my light stop shining. I did my best to control the bleeding but there was nothing to be done. She just kept repeating those words over and over and over again. "Never give up." "Never let your light stop shining." It took her nearly twenty minutes to bleed out. She died in the street, defiled and discarded like a piece of trash."

"My god." Felicity whispered as she took Oliver's hand.

Just the telling of the story shook Oliver, he couldn't have imagined being there. Immediately, his mind tried to jump to Felicity but he pushed it away. Dark thoughts like that would serve no purpose at this point.

"I could have let myself wallow in my own pain on that day or any day after it." Ray continued, his tone changed to one of strength. "But I knew that I would have failed her if I had done that. So, a week after her death, I went back to work. I have given my wealth, my time and my life to this city. I have given my future wife to this city and I am willing to fight and die for its safety if I need to. No person should ever have to go through what I did on that day and whether I get your approval or not, I am going to save this city."

Oliver needed no convincing. Simply, he stood and extended his hand to Ray.

"5PM, the day after Christmas, Queen Mansion."

"What's happening there?" Ray asked.

"Your training to become The Atom begins."

* * *

Christmas morning in the Queen household was a different affair that in previous years. In the first year after moving back into Queen Mansion, Oliver had spent Christmas with Thea and Roy before they moved to Keystone while Felicity had been visiting her mother in Las Vegas. Last year, the pair had spent Christmas day on their own.

This year, however, Oliver had decided that he wanted to spend his Christmas with his entire extended family. So, Oliver had dismissed the home care staff for the week of Christmas so that Oliver could prepare for Christmas the right way. It was why Oliver had woken up at 5 AM on Christmas morning to start fixing breakfast for the family.

Rare were the times that Oliver got to spend on his own. He loved how much time he got to spend with Felicity but it was the silence of the morning where Oliver just could let silence rule that he really loved. In fact, Oliver had spent the previous four hours working on the breakfast, enjoying the silence, that he hadn't noticed that his entire family had shown up and was conversing in the other room.

Around 9 AM, Laurel walked into the kitchen.

"Breakfast almost ready?" Laurel asked as she walked in.

"Almost." Oliver said, almost surprised that he had barely heard her come in. Laurel had gotten very good at being stealthy after two and a half years of being The Black Canary. "Is everyone here?"

"John and Lyla just came in. They looked upset about something."

"Really?" Oliver said in confusion. "Any idea what?"

"Not at all." Laurel said as she come to stand next to Oliver. "Heard from Thea?"

"She and Roy are busy in Keystone." Oliver said sadly. He had called his sister three days earlier to see if they could fly into town for Christmas. Unfortunately, her duties as the President of QC-Keystone were going to prevent her from coming back home. It wasn't the first time he hadn't seen her on Christmas since his return to Starling City but it was the first time that he was hosting his entire family and the only blood relative that he had left that he actually cared about wasn't going to be there.

"I'm sorry, Ollie." Laurel replied. "Now, let's grab some of this stuff and bring it into the other room so you aren't hiding from everyone in here."

"I suppose we can do that." Oliver said with a grin. "Thanks for the help."

"It's Christmas, Ollie. It's what family is for." she replied before planting a small kiss on his cheek. In the past, Oliver may have been confused by this interaction. He may have looked into it further and being unaware of its meaning. However, for the first time in his life, Oliver knew exactly where he stood with all of his family.

His interaction with Laurel had always been the most confusing for a variety of reasons. First, their own history together, including Oliver bringing Sara on The Queen's Gambit, was not exactly simple. Second, Oliver's history with Laurel as the Hood or the Arrow had complicated things further. When Oliver had returned from the island, it was clear that Laurel hated him for what he had done. On the flip side, she loved the Hood for what he did for the city. Once she realized that they were one and the same, things got even more complicated.

However, Oliver had come to a realization about a year earlier. He loved Laurel and he always would. There was too much history between the two of them for that to be the case. But now, that love manifested itself as almost a sibling-like bond. Frequently, Oliver and Laurel would get lunch together and simply talk. It was a healthy thing for the two of them and it was something that they both cherished as it was their opportunity to be out of the world and just be Laurel and Oliver.

Following Laurel's lead, Oliver started bringing the food to the dining room. Although it took nearly ten minutes to bring everything out that Oliver had made, eventually it was all there and ready for consumption. Looking around the table, Oliver couldn't help but smile as he was surrounded by the only family he had ever entirely understood.

Obviously, Oliver and Felicity were there. It was their house.

Laurel had come as had John, Lyla and their son Andy. Andy, in Oliver's eyes, may have been the most active three year old in the history of the world and among the most inquisitive. However, he was also exceedingly polite and, unlike most three year olds, was fairly content to simply sit and be quiet, choosing to listen rather than speak.

In Oliver's opinion, he was the best of both of his parents.

As the Team Arrow family dug in, Oliver couldn't help but think of those that weren't there.

"Excuse me." Oliver said softly, getting everyone's attention by standing up. "Before we get started, I want to take a moment to remember those who aren't here. Thea and Roy are busy in Keystone and I couldn't be more proud of them, despite how much I miss them. It's funny because they basically moved into my mother's backyard and yet she doesn't get to see them either. I'm sad that because of the choices she made that she can't really be apart of our lives anymore."

"Not that you're really missing out on much." Felicity said softly.

"True." Oliver answered before continuing. "However, it's those that aren't living that we can't forget. Sara and Quentin, Andy, even Tommy and Slade how we want to remember them, they're all the reason we do why we do. Each day we live, we honor their memory and thank them for what they gave us."

"Absolutely." Diggle replied with a grin. "Now, I may eat the tablecloth if you don't let us eat something."

"Dig in." Oliver replied with a wink in John's direction.

For the next thirty minutes, the part of Team Arrow that was there ate and talked about their lives. Much was asked of Oliver's new role as Mayor along with Laurel's new role as DA. However, about thirty minutes into breakfast, Lyla's phone went off. She quickly stepped away to answer it.

She was gone nearly twenty minutes before returning, a strange look in her eye.

"What is it, baby?" Diggle asked softly.

"That was Trevor." Lyla replied before taking her seat, staring ahead blankly. "Waller has been terminated."

If Oliver had expected anything to come out of Lyla's mouth, that was not it.

"What? How?" Felicity asked in shock, a feeling shared by everyone at the table.

"She hadn't reported into headquarters this morning. We all knew Waller, no family, no life outside of that building. She'd never missed a day since she'd been hired on at ARGUS nearly twenty-five years ago." Lyla said, the blank look still on her face. "When she hadn't shown up, Colonel Trevor sent someone to her apartment. Apparently, she had been murdered in her sleep."

"By whom?" Laurel asked. "She doesn't seem like someone that would be easy to kill."

"She's not. The only thing I can think of is the case she had been working on recently." Lyla answered. "It all seems strange now."

"What does?"

"Rarely did Waller herself actually do the legwork to investigate a case." Lyla explained. "However, a case recently caught her eye. Some sort of rogue artificial intelligence was rampaging its way through secure databases. It was basically tearing about some of the military's best digital security networks as well. I think that Waller thought that this wasn't the case of a rogue AI any longer."

"She thought that the AI was designed specifically for that purpose." Oliver filled in. "Someone built an AI to attack government databases and networks and she wanted to know who."

"She must have gotten too close." Lyla reasoned. "Otherwise, there's no reason to come after her. Waller's death won't be reported in the news but for those of us in the intelligence community, it's a big loss and someone is going to want some answers."

"I got the feeling that Waller wasn't like at ARGUS." Felicity said shortly.

"Liked? Absolutely not. Hell, I was her most trusted agent and I couldn't stand her. However, she was very well respected. No one doubted her commitment to keep the US safe, even if they hated her or her tactics. She got the job done."

"She most certainly did." Oliver muttered, his mind flashing back to Hong Kong. "Who's next in line?"

"Colonel Steve Trevor will almost undoubtedly be placed in charge of ARGUS. He's current second-in-command and he's got the ear of the President. They were in the Air Force together. Trevor is a wild card. He's undoubtedly a better person that Waller but he has morals and in this job, that could certainly kill you."

"Better than being alive without them."

"You say that now but he's now got access to the restricted files. Files that include the secret identity of every single masked hero in the country."

"She knew who we all were." Laurel asked in fear. "I don't believe it."

"Maybe not all of you but she certainly knew everyone in Starling City."

The thought of a new ARGUS director worried Oliver. While he had certainly be on uncertain footing with Waller at times, they had understood each other and stayed out of their way. Now, Oliver was going to have to figure out a way to deal with a new director while also asking himself one question.

Who stood to gain the most out of Amanda Waller's death?

* * *

The day after Christmas was going to be a stressful one. Oliver had known that from the moment he had woken up. Not that it had stopped him from complaining about it.

"Mike, has Roman been in yet today?" Oliver said as he stepped off the elevator at his campaign headquarters. Until he was officially sworn in on January 1st, Oliver was using his campaign headquarters as his mayor-in-waiting offices. He'd already had several meetings with current Mayor Donner there to ensure a smooth transition between the two.

"Not yet, Mr. Mayor." Michael replied, smiling as always whenever he used that term. Oliver had taken a liking to Michael. He was quiet, smart and resourceful. However, on the several occasions when Oliver had asked him to express his mind, he had done just that.

"Well, when you see him, direct him in here." Oliver said before closing his office door. That morning, with the exception of his meeting with Roman, Oliver had committed himself to reading nearly 200 pages of briefings on the current financial state of the city and its current relationship with the state's financial planning committee.

If the 21 year old version of himself could see him now.

Nearly two hours passed before Oliver heard a knock on his door.

"It's open." Oliver said without looking up from the report on the city's produce import/export report for the previous year.

"Queen, Mike said that you wanted to see me."

Queen. Gritting his teeth, Oliver looked over his report to see Roman Sionis, as expected, standing in his doorway. Breathing deeply, Oliver set his report down and motioned for Roman to sit down.

"Roman, I have a question to ask you." Oliver said, starting the meeting.

"Alright." Roman said cautiously.

"I'm not a huge stickler for protocol. In fact, it is likely that the lawyers of City Hall are going to turn to drugs and alcohol during my first month there as I do my very best to ignore every normal protocol that's done in that building."

"I can imagine."

"However, something that's always stuck out for me is how you address me.  _Queen._ Never Oliver, Ollie, Mr. Queen, Mr. Mayor or anything like that. Just Queen. You've worked my campaign for nearly six months and have worked for the infant stages of my administration for another six weeks. In that time, you have only addressed me by Queen."

"Is there a question somewhere in this?" Roman said, biting back adding Queen to the end of that question.

"Why?"

"Why does it matter?" Roman replied. "You said it yourself, protocol isn't your thing and it's certainly not mine. You wouldn't be the first candidate I've addressed by their last name only."

"Yet there have been some you have called on a first name basis."

"Certainly." Roman answered quickly as if it was the most obviously thing in the world.

"OK." Oliver said before reaching into his desk. "You've taught me a lot, Roman, but if it's one thing you've taught me, it's to know the people you're dealing with."

Quickly, Oliver threw the file across the desk at Roman, letting it float gently onto the desk in front of him.

"Did you do this?"

The look on Roman's face gave away nothing. Slowly, he looked up and matched Oliver's gaze, silent.

"Did you or did you not look into the possibility that Adam Donner had an extramarital relationship with a man?"

"Well, Mr. Quee-"

"The only words I need to hear are yes or no." Oliver said, cutting him off. "I remember you bringing this up in June. I told you to bury it. I told you that's now how I play. I expressly forbid you from looking into this any further. Am I correct?"

"Yes." Roman said simply.

"What about this?" Oliver said, pulling out another file and stacking it on top of the original. "You looked into Maxwell Lord's finances. Again, you mentioned something about a potentially illegal revenue stream for Lord in March. I told you to leave it alone."

"You did." Roman admitted.

"Then how is it that I have a file stating that you looked into just that?" Oliver said before retrieving yet another file. "Or one on Laurel Lance."

The look on Roman Sionis' face suddenly stiffened. If he had known that the other two were going to get him in trouble, this one could get him killed.

"You told me that my relationship, both past and present, with Laurel could hurt my campaign. I told you about everything. I had her come in and tell you everything, filling in  _even more_ gaps. When that was done, I told you that you were done with that particular investigation. So how is it even vaguely possible that I have this file?"

"Because I ordered it." Roman replied defiantly. "There's information in there that would make your hair curl, Queen. She's been working with The Green Arrow for years now. She's been suspended twice for giving information to him. How do you know that she's not giving any information to anyone else?"

 **"ENOUGH!"** Oliver barked, slamming his hand down on his desk. The resulting force was so large that the mug that Roman had brought it with him leapt from the table and crashed to the floor, breaking into dozens of pieces. Despite the crash, Roman never even considered breaking eye contact with Oliver, staring him down.

Calming himself back down, Oliver leaned back in his chair.

"I never really liked you, Roman. You're dirty and cheap. I know that may win you points with other candidates but it obviously wouldn't win you points with mine."

"It earned you City Hall, you moron." Roman snapped back. "My tactics may not be pretty and they may not be fair but I fucking win!"

"No," Oliver replied calmly. "I won. I am Mayor of Starling City and you are unemployed."

For a second, Roman looked as if he had been shot. However, he quickly snapped out of his stupor and replied.

"Excuse me?"

"You will go back to your desk and remove any personal belongings you have." Oliver said slowly. "I had every single file you have on your desk categorized yesterday and inventoried. If a single thing is missing, I'll have my new friend in the District Attorney's office prosecute you."

"You think that you can survive without me?" Roman scoffed. "I got you this far and you're just going to dump me."

"Myra will be my chief of staff and Pete will be my primary adviser and communications director." Oliver said evenly. "I asked you earlier why you called me Queen but I knew the answer. It's a matter of respect. You don't respect me. You think that I bought this position. Without my money, I wouldn't have even been a plausible candidate."

"It's the truth."

"It doesn't matter." Oliver shot back. "What matters is that I am now the Mayor. I became a plausible candidate and I did it with your repeated attempts to go behind my back and do exactly what I asked you  _not_ to do."

"I was doing my job."

"Your job was follow my orders followed in a distant second by getting me elected." Oliver answered. "Now, a story is going to leak to the Starling Gazette about this. It will not name who you went after or what exactly you did. However, it will note that you have been fired for insubordination."

"That's bullshit, Queen, and you know it." Roman replied, rolling his eyes. "I'll refute that and I'll have my own evidence to proof it. I'm getting fired because you didn't like my tactics."

Finally, Oliver pulled out one more file. This one had  **ROMAN SIONIS** in giant red letters on the front of it.

"This one I'm holding on to." Oliver smirked. "You're getting fired for insubordination or this file gets sent to the Gazette and to Laurel Lance. Do you really want them looking any further into the death of your parents? Or what about that waterproof makeup that Janus Cosmetics produced before it was bought out from underneath you?"

Standing, Roman made his way around Oliver's desk until he stood next to him. Reaching down, Roman attempted to grab Oliver's collar. However, Oliver was quicker, standing in an instant and grabbing Roman by the neck and slamming him against the wall of his office, shaking the walls of his office.

"You will get out or I will have you sent to jail for life." Oliver said softly, the threats coming out in a terrifying whisper. "Am I clear?"

"Very." Roman growled.

Slowly, Oliver released Roman who quickly straightened his jacket and made his way to the door. Opening the door, Roman turned back to look at him one final time.

"You don't belong in this world, Queen. It's too tough for you and one day, someone is going to come after you and they're going to tear your heart out. But you know what's going to the most disappointing part about that?"

"What?"

"That I won't be the one ripping your heart out myself."

With that, Roman slammed the door and disappeared from Queen Tower forever.

* * *

After granting Ray what amounted to emergency-only access to the ArrowCave, Oliver and Ray stood at the edge of the training mats, ready to begin their first training session.

"Physically, you're ready already." Oliver said as he stood patiently at the edge of the mat. "You have the strength, the speed and the stamina. But the mental fortitude is what's going to make this work. Now, pick up the sword next to you."

At the edge of the mat lay a sword that Ray slowly reached down and picked up, the weapon obviously uncomfortable in his hands.

"That is a dull katana. A dull katana is still sharper than most blades." Oliver explained evenly. "Now, you're going to try and hit me with that."

"Won't that hurt if I hit you." Ray asked in concern.

"Probably but there's no chance of you hitting me today." Oliver taunted. "The point of this exercise is pain. You will learn this lesson quickly and yet it will takes weeks or months for it to truly burn into your brain. Once that happens, you would be able to go out on the streets in jeans and a tank top and protect your city. That's when you'll know that it's time."

"Everyone you've ever trained did this?" Ray asked as he stepped forward.

"No." Oliver answered. "You're the first person that I've trained in nearly three years. Laurel and Roy went through the same training process that I did. John was Special Forces so he was trained there. No, you're the first person to get trained with this particular method."

"What method is that?"

"Previously, everything I was taught, everything I learned focused on control." Oliver replied. "Physical control, mental control, emotional control."

"And what's this?"

"This method comes from the understanding that control is important. However, what's more important is resilience."

"Resilience?" Ray asked in confusion.

"We're going to get knocked down. We're going to lose at times. We'll be too slow, not smart enough, not strong enough. We'll fall short in some way. Resilience is what keeps us going when we fail."

"So how is this going to help?" Ray asked. "So far, we're just standing here."

"Computer, fire."

Suddenly, a crossbow from behind Ray fired, striking him in the left leg. Instantly, he fell to the floor, crying in pain.

"What the hell!?" Ray shouted.

"Fight me." Oliver said, stepping towards Ray.

"Are you insane?"

Oliver hated doing this but he needed to understand. When Ray didn't get up to defend himself, Oliver took one of his training staffs and swung, crushing him in the side of the head, knocking him unconscious before he hit the floor.

Forty minutes later, Ray woke up to Oliver standing over him. Oliver watched him as he came to and realized that he still had an arrow sticking out of his leg.

"Ahhh." Ray groaned. "What the hell is going on?"

"Resilience." Oliver said simply before kneeling down to his level. "You weren't paying attention to the fact that there are no less than fourteen loaded crossbows aimed at you when you walked into the room. Then, when you failed, you crumbled."

"This was a test?" Ray exclaimed.

"Everything is a test." Oliver admitted. "Awareness, control, resilience: those are the three keys to doing what we do. Awareness keeps you from making mistakes, control allows you to react in the face of the unknown and resilience forces you to bounce back."

"You're kind of messed up, Queen."

"Ray, this is the way our world works. You want to do this? This is something you'll understand. If you don't, I can't let you out there on my streets."

Quickly, Oliver pulled the arrow from Ray's leg, causing him to grimace in pain.

"Your streets? A bit possessive, aren't we?" Ray said as he stood gently.

"I've been protecting this city for nearly seven years now and I'm the city's Mayor." Oliver said with a smirk. "They're my streets."

"Fair enough." Ray said as he lifted his sword. "What next?"

"You prove your resiliency." Oliver answered.

"How?"

"I'm going to hit you with this staff, repeatedly." Oliver said. "It's going to hurt a great deal. But you're going to keep fighting and you're going to lose."

"Why would I do that?"

"Because you can't win in this particular battle until you've lost more times than you can count. You can't win until you've been stripped bare. You're going to come down here every night, Ray, and every night, you're going to lose. Until one day, you're going to hit me with that sword. On that day, you'll be ready."

* * *

January 1st had been an interesting day thus far. At 12:01, Oliver had a city judge come to Queen Mansion with a few reporters to be officially sworn in as Mayor. After answering their questions, Oliver had gone to bed to wake up only a few hours later and appear on several early morning TV/radio programs. With an exceedingly brief address to the crowd gathered at City Hall, Oliver had marched up the stairs to the District Attorney's office where he had been present to help swear Laurel in as the new DA.

For the next two hours, the pair of them had discussed several open cases and the process by which Laurel would appoint her new Assistant DAs. Finally, as Oliver expected most of their meetings to go, their discussion turned to their night jobs.

"Rumor has it that Captain Cold is in Starling City to get his revenge on Team Arrow."

"If by rumor," Oliver said through a full mouth of BLT. "you mean that you spoke to Caitlin, then she also warned me that Snart would be coming."

"Damn. I wanted to have intel before you for once." Laurel joked.

"Laurel, I literally sleep with our intel." Oliver replied. "If I need intel, I roll over and ask Felicity. She pulls out her tablet or her phone or her laptop or just her giant brain and I have intel."

"See, you have an unfair advantage." Laurel chuckled before changing her tone a bit. "I've also heard a rumor that someone is not so hot on the idea of going on nightly patrols anymore."

Internally, Oliver considered noting that he needed to talk to Felicity about who she spread his secrets too. However, Oliver realized that he didn't need to keep secrets anymore and this least of all.

"You may have heard correctly." Oliver admitted before continuing to eat his lunch.

"You're seriously considering hanging up the bow?" Laurel asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Maybe." Oliver said before instantly changing course. "I honestly have no clue, Laurel. It's not as simple as just walking away."

"Did you ever think it was going to be?" Laurel countered. "Why now?"

"That's the easiest part. No Ra's, no Merlyns, no Slade and it appears that we've taken down the Starling Mob. If we can work our day jobs and get Whale put away, all we have to do is make sure that no one takes his place."

"Easier said than done."

"Maybe but now that we know that Whale was the one that consolidated power, we can be on the lookout for someone occupying a similar role. There are going to be dead giveaways that someone is trying to replace him."

"That's the only reason?" Laurel asked.

"No." Oliver admitted nervously before reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small black box. Oliver had been holding onto it for weeks now, waiting for the right moment. "This is the real reason."

Slowly, Laurel reached forward and opened the box. As she had guessed, inside was an engagement ring. Oliver had spent weeks sneaking out of the campaign office to go shopping while she was at work. He'd been able to have Diggle or Pete cover for him while he was gone and although Oliver suspected that she knew that something was up, he was very confident that she didn't know exactly what it was.

The ring was simple. The entire ring was a silver band that looped around the finger, not quite coming back together. In between the two ends of the band were three diamonds lined up in a row, completing the loop. To the average person, the ring looked fairly simple. However, the silver and diamonds were both top of the line. The ring itself cost just under forty-five thousand dollars.

"Oh my god." Laurel said as she opened the box. "It's gorgeous."

"She's going to love it." Oliver said evenly. "But since I bought it, I can't help but think that every time I go out there, I may not come back to give it to her."

"Then stop waiting, Ollie. Give it to her tonight."

"The Welcoming Ball? We both hate those kind of things." Oliver said in disgust. "There's nothing special about that."

"The fact that you both hate them is a unifying factor." Laurel countered.

"I guess."

For a couple seconds, Laurel continued to look at the ring before sliding it back in the box and giving it back to Oliver. As he took the box back and put it into his pocket, he noticed that Laurel's demeanor had changed entirely.

"Laurel?"

"I'm fine, Oliver."

Oliver? She never called him that. It was the largest sign that she was not, in fact, okay.

"Laurel, spit it out." Oliver said, calling her out.

"It's been years but there is still a small part of me that's a bit upset that you aren't giving that to me." Laurel admitted. "I'm so happy for you, Ollie, I really am. But for years, that was going to be us."

"It never was going to be us, Laurel." Oliver admitted sadly. "And it's not really us now. The version of Oliver Queen that you were in love with for so long never came back from that island. He died when his father killed himself on that life boat."

"I know." Laurel said softly. "It's just strange. Either way, you need to give that ring to her. She deserves it and so do you."

"We'll see." Oliver answered. "I just want to be able to give it to her and have her know that I'm all hers."

With that, Laurel actually chuckled to herself a bit. When Oliver gave her a look of confusion, she stopped laughing long enough to clarify what she found so funny.

"Oliver, you could put down the bow and for the next four years at least, she's playing second fiddle. We both know that she's the most important thing in your life but she's not the most pressing concern. She knew all of that when she told you to run in the first place."

"On that you're probably right." Oliver said as he stood up. "Alright, I have a meeting with my senior staff in five and then a meeting with my security staff."

"Oh I'm sure that's going to be fun." Laurel replied sarcastically.

"What? Security staffs and I get along just fine."

"I'll remember to check with John and see what he thinks about that."

* * *

That "meeting" with Oliver's senior staff basically turned into an entire day of policy planning with Pete and Myra. The meeting with Oliver's security staff had originally only been blocked for thirty minutes. Originally, that left Oliver with four hours of reading and prep before his meeting with his new security staff and then a trip home.

Now, it had left the head of security staff waiting outside his office for a half hour before he could escort Pete and Myra out and invite him in.

The head of security for City Hall and The Mayor was a relatively young man by the name of Cole Cash. Cash was in his early thirties and a recently retired member of the armed forces, although Oliver wasn't exactly sure which branch. He had been the man in charge of City Hall Security for the last year and was personally tasked with keeping Oliver safe at all times.

Unfortunately, Oliver had some information for him that he wasn't going to like.

"Cole, please come in." Oliver said from behind his desk as Pete and Myra finally vacated his office.

Standing from the waiting area outside the Mayor's Office, Cole stepped into Oliver's office. The first thing Oliver noticed was the man's height: he was practically a giant. He stood several inches taller than Oliver and was one of the sturdiest looking men Oliver had ever seen. Certainly having a man like that around would help quell most threats on Oliver just by having him near Oliver.

"Sorry to keep you waiting." Oliver said as he shook Cole's hand."The pair of them get to talking and it's nearly impossible to get them to stop."

"Not a problem, Mr. Mayor." Cole replied respectfully.

"Please, in private, it's just Oliver. Now sit." Oliver said before sitting down himself. "So, I know that I have to meet with you. I'm just not sure why."

"Well, Mr. Mayor, as the head of City Hall Security, protecting you and your staff is my prime responsibility. We're here to discuss the matter of security at your home and other locations that you frequent."

Here's where the bad news began.

"I figured that's what you were going to talk to me about." Oliver admitted. "I know that you aren't going to like this but I am going to retain my personal security staff at home."

"Mr. Mayor, I really must insist that we take over your home security." Cole countered. "It will provide a consistency for how you deal with us and how we can learn your mannerisms. Plus, I can't ensure your safety if my men are not there."

"I thought you would say that." Oliver said before waiving to Diggle, who had been waiting outside of the office, to enter. "Cole, this is John Diggle. Diggle is the head of my home security force."

"How are you, John?" Cole asked politely.

"I'm fine." Diggle answered simply. "Trust me, you don't want to watch this guy any longer than you have to."

"He's lucky he's also my best friend." Oliver muttered. "John, can you give Cole the rundown of the security protocols at the Mansion?"

"Absolutely." Diggle replied before turning to Cole. "Day shift is simple. Four guards at every entrances, armed with M-16s and high voltage tasers. Eight guards floating the perimeters of the property. Six guards manning rotating guard locations at the exterior of the home and four guards located inside the Mansion, although they tend to remain in the control room for privacy reasons. Every inch of the house is on an internally encrypted surveillance server set up by Queen Consolidated's best security specialist."

Oliver grinned internally, knowing that "security specialist" was his OCD girlfriend.

"And at night?" Cole pressed.

"Still four at every entrance with sixteen guards floating the perimeter and another eight floating the area closest to the mansion. Sixteen guards at fixed locations on the outside of the building and another eight located on the inside. Again, they tend to remain in the control room but they are there for support in case of a break-in of some kind. The security system is state of the art. If someone so much breathes on a window wrong from the outside, it goes off to the security room. Every single system blip is reported and investigated."

"I do have to say that all sounds very impressive." Cole admitted. "However, I can't say that I'm comfortable with you having your own security outside of us."

"Cole, this really isn't up for discussion." Oliver said shortly. "I'm telling you this is the way things are going to be and there's a reason for that. How many years did you serve?"

"Eight with the United States Navy."

"Rank upon retirement?" Oliver asked.

"Senior Petty Officer." Cole replied. "I declined two different promotions because I knew that I was retiring after eight years."

"Nicely done." Oliver answered before turning to John. "John, what was your rank when you retired?"

"Major."

"Anything else?" Oliver asked. "I mean, you may have been ranked higher in your respective branch but that doesn't really say much of anything."

"Five years as Special Forces Weapons Sargent, cross-training and two years with the CIA's Special Activities Division."

"That's basically US approved secret agent, right?"

"That's the layman term, yes." Diggle grinned. "Top secret clearance with the FBI, ARGUS and CIA."

As Diggle spoke, Oliver pulled Diggle's file out from his desk, something that not even Diggle knew was coming.

"He's also won the Homeland Security Distinguished Service Medal, the Bronze Star twice, the Silver Star, two Purple Hearts and twelve different Army Commendation Medals." Oliver rattled off quickly before looking back up to Cole. "Mr. Cash, you are looking at one of the most decorated men that went into a war and came out the other side. Now, I understand that you may not enjoy the fact that I have my own security but take comfort in two things."

"What is that?"

"One, that is the man protecting me. He's my best friend."

"Don't let Felicity hear you say that." Diggle joked.

"OK, he's my best male friend." Oliver corrected with a smile. "He's also been doing this for nearly seven years now."

"What's the second thing I'm supposed to take comfort in?" Cole asked, obviously still not impressed.

"He's been added to your staff as well."

"Excuse me?"

"Well, you see the city contracts the security off the Mayor and City Hall to your company. However, I technically run the city and city hall. So, when I realized that this was going to be a problem, I figured out the best solution to counter that."

"And undermining me and hiring your own head of security onto my staff was the route you came up?" Cole challenged.

"I know, it seems bad when you word it that way but I promise that it will all work out." Oliver said, doing his best to reassure the man. "John will work here as my doorman, just like he did while I was at QC and Verdant. However, he works with your men and he works under your guidelines. Now, I'm sure that he will have suggestions and I do expect that they are heeded but that does not place him in charge. You will listen to what he has to say but you make the decisions here. When we are somewhere away from City Hall but not at Queen Mansion, the pair of you will work in tandem. At Queen Mansion, John is my head of security, no questions asked."

Obviously, Cole was going to have problems with this. However, Oliver really wasn't going to leave him much choice. He hated putting pressure on people but he was very good on it when he had to be and this was one of those times. With his nightly activities, he had to have Diggle by him at all times, both for updates and for excuses for him to run out of the room at a moment's notice.

"I suppose I don't really have much say in this, do I?" Cole finally said despondently.

"You certainly do." Oliver countered. "However, you have to understand that I have a certain amount of familiarity with John and my home staff. I've worked with them since my return to the island. As it is, I'm already going to have to be working under an entirely different of rules with you here and anywhere else we may go. I'm not about to have my home adjusted at the same time."

"I can see the value you in that." Cole replied before turning to Diggle. "The only thing I request is that we are made aware of any changes to the policies that you laid out for me today. Also, I would like to double-check every person you have on staff."

"We can do that." Diggle said. "I will also inform you of any potential threats or incidents that may occur."

"Perfect!" Oliver said, standing up with feigned enthusiasm. "I really am sorry to have to do this to you, Cole. Things are already crazy enough without my home life being drastically adjusted."

"I can understand that, Mr. Queen." Cole said as he also stood. "If there's nothing else, I'm going to check in with my staff before I send most of them home for the evening."

"Do that." Oliver replied. "What time do we leave for the Welcoming Ball?"

"The Ball begins at 2000 hours." Cole said shortly, looking at his watch. "We'll want to leave here thirty minutes prior. It's only a few blocks away but traffic will be bad. We can move some of it but you aren't the President, there's only so much we can do."

"Fine. I'll have myself and Felicity ready at 7:30."

"Thank you, Mr. Mayor." Cole said before walking out the door, shutting it behind him. Instantly, Oliver collapsed into his seat, his brain nearly fried for the day.

"I thought the first day was supposed to be easy." Diggle mused.

"So did I."

* * *

The Welcoming Ball, a tradition for new Mayors of Starling City, was everything that Oliver Queen would have normally found boring. It was rich people flaunting their wealth and talking down to each other in that tone they knew how to use just right so you knew they were better than you. It was hundreds of "hanger-ons," people with much less wealth but was friendly with someone who did. They spent their evenings talking about themselves, self-conscious in a crowd full of people who were more successful than them in every way.

But it was the masks that everyone wore that bothered Oliver most of all. In the room with him were nearly a thousand people, most of which Oliver had met at some point in his life. Most of them had scowled at him and been generally condescending to him at one point in his life. Whether it was the pre-island version or the post-island CEO, most of them had found a time and place to let him know just how little they thought of him.

Now, they all smiled, asked how his family was and wished him good luck. Now, when they realized that he was the one calling the shots, they were pleasant and welcoming. It really was too much for him. Oliver spent most of his life in a mask but when he was Oliver Queen, that's who he wanted to be. He had known all of this when he had chosen to run for Mayor and he would easily be able to handle it.

It just reminded him that for most of the people in his social circle, wealth wasn't the indicator of respect. Power was and right now, Oliver had it.

The evening had started out fine with a brief speech for Laurel, welcoming Oliver to City Hall. He had specifically asked Laurel to do the welcoming speech as someone who had a certain amount of political power and was also a close friend. Normally, the deputy mayor/head of city council would give this speech. However, Starling City was going to find out over the next couple of years that Oliver Queen did things a little differently than everyone else did.

Once Laurel had finished, Oliver had stepped up and given a speech on new beginnings or something like that. He had found through the course of the election process that Oliver rarely remembered his speeches once he had given them, at least for the rest of the evening. Then, he would go back and review the video footage of the speech and make sure that he remembered anything important he had said. So far, that strategy had worked fairly well.

Then, there had been a dinner with Oliver and Felicity seated at a table with Frank Pike, Starling City Chief of Police, and his wife along with the head of the Starling City Fire Department and the Deputy Mayor, a man named Mark Shaw, and his wife. Thankfully, this was a fairly varied group of people and therefore the conversation during dinner bounced from left to right, never getting to that terrible boring place it often found itself during most of these kind of dinners.

Finally, this event was known as a Welcoming Ball and as such, it was expected that the Mayor and his wife grace the dance floor first. Well, as Oliver was the first unmarried Mayor in nearly a century, Felicity was going to have to do for the time being. Taking her hand, Oliver led Felicity to the center of the dance floor where some slow song that Oliver couldn't recognized was played by a string ensemble in the corner.

Smiling, Oliver placed his hand in the small of Felicity's back, bringing her in as close to him as he could. Taking her other hand, Oliver slowly started their simple step. Knowing that this was coming, Oliver and Felicity had taken a few dance lessons together. Nothing too complicated, they just didn't want to step on each other's feet.

"Overall, this has not been a terribly boring evening." Oliver muttered.

"You mean other Pike's wife spending forty minutes talking about how terrible The Green Arrow is." Felicity countered.

"Yeah, I could have skipped that part." Oliver grinned. "But other than that, not awful."

"I know. This would even seem very romantic if you didn't have to be here."

"It can still be romantic." Oliver said softly as he leaned in and kissed her forehead. "You just have to forget the fact that there are around a thousand people watching us."

"Oh yes, because I've always been one for big crowds." Felicity answered.

"Unfortunately, being around me means big crowds."

"I don't know what you're talking about. They're all looking at me." Felicity said, giggling softly. "They're just wondering who that guy with the Mayor's girlfriend is."

"They should be looking at you." Oliver whispered in her ear. "I can't take my eyes off you and I've been having trouble keeping my hands off you."

Suddenly, Felicity leaned back, whispering in Oliver's ear.

"Then why don't we give these people a real show." Felicity whispered before pulling back, an evil smirk on her face. Felicity's demeanor had changed so much over the last couple years. She was always still as talkative and prone to rambling as always but there was a new side of her. This one was bolder and far more likely to challenge anyone whether it was truly aggressively or the kind of sarcasm that she had just displayed.

"What if we put on a different kind of show?" Oliver asked, suddenly very nervous. He had been thinking about what Laurel had said to him earlier in the day and hadn't been able to get it out of his mind.

"Like what?"

"Like this." Oliver said as he nodded his head to the people behind Felicity. Suddenly, Laurel, John and Lyla were standing at the edge of the dance floor, watching closely. Once they were in place, Oliver stopped Felicity and placed her hands at her side.

"What are we doing?" Felicity asked, suddenly very nervous.

"You'll see." Oliver said, fidgeting as he stood. "You know that I love you, right?"

"Of course. I love you too." Felicity replied, obviously very confused as to Oliver's sudden change in behavior.

"Good, good." Oliver muttered before snapping back to reality. "I can remember the exact day that I started loving you. It was the day that my mother was found not guilty."

 _It was also the day that the Count took her hostage,_ Oliver thought to himself. He could see in her eyes that she understood exactly what part of that day he meant.

"I knew in that moment that I would do anything to protect you." Oliver whispered to her. "For awhile, I thought that meant keeping myself away from you. Me being who I am and what my life was, I never thought there was a chance for us to work."

"We know how silly you were about that." Felicity said softly before leaning in. "I mean, I can understand where you were coming from. You were wrong, which happens a bit more often than you'd think, but I can understand. I certainly didn't-"

"Felicity." Oliver interrupted. She had started rambling. She was nervous.

She had no idea how nervous he was.

"When we finally gave in to this right before The League came to Starling, I realized what a mistake I had made."

"Huh?" Felicity uttered in shock.

"The mistake was trying to keep you out. Once I let you in, I finally understood was I was missing and over the last two years, I've realized that's something that I can't live without."

"Oliver?" Felicity asked, a single tear falling from her eye.

Kneeling before her, Oliver pulled out the box that he had shown Laurel earlier. Opening it, he presented in to Felicity, whose reaction was to cover her mouth in shock.

"Felicity, I don't know what I would do without you. I may not even be alive if it weren't for you."  _They both knew he wouldn't._ "I certainly wouldn't be the man I am today and I've decided that I don't want to take the risk that you get wise and run away from me. I want you to myself until we're both old and gray. Felicity Meghan Smoak, will you marry me?"

Oliver looked up at Felicity, waiting for an answer. Suddenly, she went to take a breath, ready to speak, when Oliver noticed something moving behind her.

It was Diggle, sprinting in slow motion. Confused, Oliver saw that Diggle was pointing at something. As everything continued to move in slow motion, Oliver's head turned to the balcony above where he spotted a man with a pistol aimed at him. Looking down, Oliver saw a laser sight pointed straight at his chest. Moving as quickly as he could against the flow of time, Oliver moved, grabbing Felicity just as Diggle got to them.

The second Diggle made impact with them, all Oliver heard was a single gunshot and then everything went dark.


	5. Arsenal and The Red Arrow

The first thing Oliver noticed as he came to was that the darkness had been caused by him grabbing Felicity and diving under a table near the edge of the dance floor.

As he unearthed himself from under the table, the second thing he noticed was that he and Felicity were both fine.

The third thing he noticed was Diggle, lying in a pool of his own blood with a very noticeable hole in the center of his stomach. Instantly, Oliver snapped into action, removing his coat and apply pressure to the wound. Looking up, Oliver saw the shooter disappear out of the back of the balcony.

"It's...no big deal." Diggle mumbled, already weak due to the amount of blood he had lost.

"Shut up, Diggle." Oliver growled before turning to Felicity. "Get an ambulance here now."

"Done." Felicity said before dialing her phone. That done, Oliver turned back to Diggle, whose skin was already noticeably losing color and warmth. Pressing down as much as he could, Oliver vowed that he was not going to lose another friend.

It simply wasn't going to happen.

Turning back, Oliver saw that Felicity was off the phone. As that happened, Laurel also raced over to them.

"Go after him." Oliver ordered.

"What?" Laurel asked in shock.

"I'm here. Not only can I not leave him but I can't disappear right now. No offense but if the District Attorney disappears, no one is really going to notice. Now, he took off out the back of the balcony. Go!" Oliver shouted, growling the last order.

"Got it." Laurel said before taking off at a sprint across the room. With that, Oliver kept the pressure up while turning back to Felicity.

"I want all security footage from the building on the computers in the Foundry within the hour."

"You're really going to go after that guy tonight?" Felicity whispered, crawling up next to him.

"You expect me to just sit around and wait?" Oliver growled.

"Yes." Felicity said as she put her hand on Oliver's arm. "This is Diggle, Oliver. It's John. You need to be there when he wakes up. Also, the Mayor can't just disappear right after one of his bodymen gets shot. There's going to be press at the hospital. Even if it's just to say that you won't say anything until tomorrow, you actually have to be there to say something."

She was right. As much as Oliver hated to admit, like usual, Felicity was right. For now, The Black Canary was going to be the one on the streets.

"Get me a comm link with Laurel as early as you can." Oliver muttered.

The next ten minutes were torturous as Oliver and Felicity waited for the EMS to arrive. Finally, they did and were able to get Diggle stabilized on a stretcher. There was no argument from anyone inside the ambulance when Oliver and Felicity crowded in and Oliver ordered them to move. On the ride over Felicity dialed Lyla's number and handed the phone to Oliver.

"Lyla." Oliver said as she picked up the phone.

_"Why are you calling from Felicity's number?"_  Lyla joked.

"Lyla, there was a shooter at the event tonight." Oliver said, his voice trembling slightly. "They were aiming for me. I didn't realize it but John did."

_"Oh my god."_  Lyla whispered.

"He took one shot to the stomach. We're on the way to Starling General now."

_"I'll be there in twenty minutes."_ Lyla answered firmly before hanging up.

Another five minutes later, they were at Starling General Hospital with Diggle being rolled behind a pair of closed doors and a nurse very nervously telling Oliver that regardless of the fact that he was the Mayor, he was not allowed back there. As Oliver coped with that, Felicity's predication came true. Before Lyla or anyone else could show up, the press was the in droves.

Angrily, Oliver made his way to the front. Felicity tried to hold him back but was unsuccessful.

"ALL OF YOU OUT!  **NOW!"** Oliver screamed in the waiting room.

This did nothing other than make the drone of questions being asked shout out louder. Changing tactics, Oliver raised a hand and ordered silence.

"Here's what's going to happen," Oliver growled menacingly. "You're going to pass this message along to any friends in the journalism world you may have. This hospital is currently off-limits. If any of you are found here, I will order a blackout for whatever publication you work for. No quotes, no interviews, nothing. That goes for anyone that works at City Hall. Your pictures will be posted in our offices and you'll be barred from the building. Press me and I'll remove your press credentials from City Hall entirely. Am I clear?"

The response was silence followed by a slight ring of confirmation.

"Now, if you could do me the great favor of getting out of here, the man's wife is on his way in and the last thing he needs is to be ambushed by you." Oliver said, before adding a capper to his statement. "Also, I have the entire building surrounded by security. If a single one of you approaches her, I will go to whomever I need to go to ensure that you're fired from your current position. Now, good night."

Having said his piece, Oliver turned and made his way back to the waiting room where he took a seat next to Felicity.

"You really shouldn't have done that." Felicity said.

"I'm not about to turn John's actions into a news event."

"You just did."

"Yes but the story will be that I barred the press from the hospital, not the worried wife or the dutiful bodyguard."

"I suppose."

Oliver and Felicity waited in silence before Lyla finally showed up. Instantly, she raced towards them, hugging Oliver the moment she saw him.

"How is he?" she cried out weakly.

"We don't know yet." Felicity said comfortingly.

As if she knew it was coming, the moment that Felicity said that, a doctor came out from behind the double doors, approaching them slowly.

"You're the family of Mr. Diggle?" he asked softly.

"Yes." Lyla whispered softly.

"Good. My name is Dr. David Bennett and I'm the doctor that will be working on Jonathan. He's fairly lucky. The shot missed most of the major arteries and organs in the body. However, it did nick the edge of his pancreas. As a result, we're going to have to remove that. The shot also hit and shattered one of his ribs with the shot hitting both sides of the rib before exiting."

"Will he survive?"

"Absolutely, Mrs. Diggle." Dr. Bennett replied. "However, he is going to be out of commission for quite some time. It will take at least six weeks for the ribs to heal and the burst pancreas is going to leave him feeling weak for a couple weeks. All told, it's going to be at least two months before he's back to work and probably three before he really feels like himself again."

"Thank you, Dr." Oliver said softly. "When are you starting surgery?"

"With Mrs. Diggle's permission, as soon as possible."

"Please." Lyla begged. "Just make him okay."

"We'll do our very best. The surgery should take about four to six care in knowing that the emergency surgery staff here is among the best in the country."

* * *

Six hours later, Diggle was out of surgery and in his own hospital room. Although not awake and breathing on a ventilator for the time being, the doctors were very confident that he would be fine with the exception of a long recovery time. For the time being, Lyla was out of the room, checking on Andy, whom she had left with her sister.

That left Oliver and Felicity alone with the unconscious John Diggle. For most of the time, they sat in silence, watching something mindless on the television and trying not to spend too much time thinking about their friend. Suddenly, Oliver had a thought. Standing up, he went to his jacket, which had been hung over the chair next to Diggle's bed, and searched it.

Then, he searched his pants and also found nothing.

The ring was gone. In a panic, Oliver again searched the room and the waiting room before Felicity suddenly spoke up.

"I have it." she said softly.

"What?" Oliver replied suddenly.

"I have the ring." Felicity said before pulling it out of her purse. "It fell out of your hand when you grabbed me and then you jumped forward and helped Diggle. I saw it lying on the floor so I just grabbed it."

"Thanks." Oliver said with a grin as he sat back down next to her in the window seat. "Can I have it?"

"You want it back?" Felicity replied sadly. Instantly, Oliver knew exactly where her mind had gone.

"Not like that, no!" Oliver nearly shouted, trying to cover his tracks. "I just figured that this wasn't the time anymore. I'd wait and ask at a more appropriate time."

Felicity went to go say something before Oliver noticed Diggle coughing out of the corner of his eye. He was awake. Instantly, Oliver leapt up and hit the nurse call button. Within seconds, a nurse came in and was calming Diggle down. Once he was relaxed, they were able to remove the ventilator.

"Now, Mr. Diggle, your throat is going to be very sore." the nurse said softly. "Also, we had to use some very powerful anesthesia during the surgery. You're going to be very tired so don't try and fight it."

Diggle responded to the nurse with a nod. When she was out of the room, Diggle nudged his head, indicating for Oliver to come closer. Following his orders, Oliver got just close enough for Diggle to put enough effort into saying one short sentence.

"Give her the damn ring already."

And with that, Diggle leaned back and slowly drifted off to sleep. Smiling, Oliver turned back to Felicity, who had come up next to him.

"You know, now that I think about it, this seems like a pretty good time." Oliver said with a smile.

"He told you to give it to me, didn't he?" Felicity replied, obviously not fooled.

"Yes, he did." Oliver smirked. "He's right. If I wait until things are perfect, with the way our lives go, it will never happen again. You're going to have to accept the fact that I get shot at sometimes."

"I think I can get over that." Felicity replied softly. With a grin, Oliver took the ring out of Felicity's hand and removed it from its case. "Felicity, will you marry me?"

"Of course." Felicity said softly as Oliver slipped the ring onto her finger. "You know, about two weeks after we first met, I had a dream about marrying you."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, but then there were weird people there like my third grade teacher and my first rabbi. And my mom just kept yelling at me and telling me that you weren't rich enough. In the end, I decided that dream was just one of the weird ones."

"You have any other ones? The ones you tell me about are always strange."

"You know what? I don't have to explain myself to you." Felicity countered, a knowing grin on her face.

"Fair enough." Oliver said as Lyla walked into the room. Call it woman's intuition or whatever you like but the moment she walked into the room, the first thing she noticed was the ring on Felicity's finger.

"About damn time!" Lyla said as she came up and hugged Felicity. "What took you so long?"

"I'm not sure. However, I have your husband for encouraging me to do it." Oliver said, pointing to the now respirator-less John Diggle. "He woke up, choked down some water, told me to stop being a wimp and then went to sleep."

"Sounds like John." Lyla said with a smile. "I'm happy for you two."

"Not as happy as I am." Oliver answered.

For the first time in a long time, even with as well as things had been going recently, happy was finally at the top of the list of emotions that Oliver was feeling.

And it all had to do with Felicity Smoak.

* * *

With Lyla there for Diggle, both Felicity and Oliver decided that other work was in store. Grabbing a taxi back to Queen Mansion, the pair of them went to work. The moment they were inside the house, Oliver activated his comm link. Looking down at his watch, he saw that it was nearly 1 AM, meaning that Laurel had either captured the shooter or likely lost him.

The odds of her finding him tonight were small anyway so Oliver wouldn't have been surprised.

"Canary, check in." Oliver said as they walked into the back door.

_"Shooter disappeared on me."_ Laurel answered.  _"I'm forwarding a picture of the shooter's license plate. Last seen driving away from downtown."_

"The airport maybe?" Oliver suggested to Felicity.

"It's likely." Felicity answered as the door to the ArrowCave opened. Racing down the stairs, Oliver sat down at his own terminal. Over the last two years, Felicity had taught Oliver as much as she could about computers. While he was nowhere near as capable as Felicity, he was now very good in his own right at working the terminals.

The difference being that Oliver had to work to do it. Felicity made it look like art.

The second he sat down, he was pulling up the picture that Laurel had messaged them. Clearly pictured was the vehicle's license plate number which Oliver quickly ran through a database. Unfortunately, the vehicle was a rental and had been rented out a woman less than an hour earlier.

Meanwhile, Felicity took a look through the security footage from both inside and outside the ballroom from earlier in the evening. While she ran the video through facial recognition software, she also took a look at Diggle's medical records. To avoid suspicion, neither of them had asked the caliber of bullet from the doctor. Looking past her to her screen, Oliver saw that it was a .50 caliber bullet likely fired from a Desert Eagle Magnum, one of the most powerful handguns in the world.

No wonder it did the damage it did from as far away as it had. It's a good thing that the shooter had terrible aim or Diggle wouldn't be lying in the hospital.

He would have been in the morgue.

"Got it." Felicity whispered before turning to. "After running facial recognition through every database we have access to-"

"Which is all of them." Oliver joked.

"Basically, I've got our shooter. William Tyler Allen with priors in disorderly conduct, public indecency, a couple hits on low volume drug trafficking and several DUIs."

"That's our shooter?" Oliver asked in shock. "Sounds like we got someone with very little experience. Why would someone hire him or does he have a beef with me?"

"Not at all but I'm noticing two things. First, up until a few days ago, the man had nearly five hundred thousand dollars in debt, mostly medical related to the care of his wife but there's also numerous loans that he's defaulted on. Suddenly, he's debt free."

"He got a pretty good pay day." Oliver replied. "What was the other thing?"

"He used to be a security guard at Janus Cosmetics."

"The same company that Roman Sionis ran into the ground?"

"Before Wayne bought it, yes." Felicity finished. "The only thing is that I've run Sionis' back accounts, including those ones that he doesn't want anyone to know about, and there's nothing."

"Nothing?" Oliver asked in confusion. "How is that possible?"

"The only thing I can think is that he got someone totally unrelated to him to pay for it. There's nearly a million dollars going to Allen but not a single penny of Sionis' money goes to anything that pays Allen."

"Cash?"

"No withdrawals."

"Who paid Allen?"

"Also cash deposit." Felicity answered before turning to Oliver. "We'll be able to get him for the shooting but unless he cracks under interrogation, we've got nothing."

"Good thing I happen to know someone in the District Attorney's office."

* * *

Unfortunately, Laurel was unable to get anything out of Allen. While they were able to get him to talk, the information was unusable. He never directly spoke to Sionis, just a conversation on a phone that when double-checked turned out to go to a prepaid phone that hadn't been used since that phone call.

The money provided for him was cash and it was dropped off in one of the more crowded train terminals in Starling, making it impossible to trace the person who had dropped it off. Another check (this time with a search warrant) of Sionis' accounts turned up nothing.

Not only that but Sionis had left Starling for Metropolis where he had been hired as a PR consultant for a law firm with a rather seedy reputation.

Perfect for him.

While no one doubted that Sionis had paid to have Oliver killed, there simply wasn't enough evidence to build a case. For their troubles, they had even offered Allen a deal that would only get him five years in jail.

Five years in jail for trying to kill the Mayor and no convictions on the true organizer.

Needless to say, Oliver was not pleased. For the rest of the week, Oliver spent almost all of his time in one of three places. The first was obviously his office. Unfortunately for him, even Diggle getting shot didn't really afford him a day off. The second place was Diggle's hospital room. Thankfully, Diggle seemed in good spirits and was healing well. The doctors expected him to be able to go home within the few days which was a relief because, like Oliver, Diggle was not necessarily the most cooperative patient.

The last location that Oliver could be found was out on the city. Oliver hadn't gone on patrols this frequently in months. As Mayor, Oliver got to set his own procedures for how work was done. Thankfully, both of his senior staff members had young families and enjoyed spending time with them as much as they enjoyed working. So, the mayoral staff and their staffs all stopped work each day at 6 PM. Oliver himself occasionally had some meetings that last later than that but that was a rare thing.

This allowed Oliver a bit of time before sundown and the beginning of patrols. Something about the thought of Sionis doing what he had done and getting away with it bugged Oliver. What he really wanted to do was go to Metropolis and beat a confession out of Sionis. However, Laurel had warned him that the little they had on him would become useless if he disappeared which he would almost certainly do if the Green Arrow just showed up in Metropolis.

"Felicity." Oliver whispered softly to the beautiful blonde seated next to him. "Felicity."

"If you say my name again, I may stab you with one of your arrows."

"As cute as that would be to see you try, you need to get up. We're here."

Here was Keystone City. The other great thing about being Mayor was that while there was certainly work happening in Starling City on the weekends, Oliver was actually rarely needed for that. In fact, right now, his staff was back at City Hall meeting on introducing some legislation that would reduce the quotas for speeding tickets. The hope was that if the police was spending less time giving out speeding tickets, there would be more room for them to respond to more serious threats like robberies and assaults.

"Already?"

"We left an hour ago. It's not a particularly long flight." Oliver said as he stood, stretching his arms out above his head.

"I guess." Felicity mumbled as she stood and gathered her things. Once everything was in her bag, she led the way out of the plane. As they marched down the small set of stairs, Oliver noticed that his sister and Roy were already waiting for them on the tarmac, a car waiting. The moment Felicity saw Thea, she shuffled in as much of a run as she could manage in heels, nearly tackling Thea in a huge.

Grinning widely, Oliver approached Roy.

"Mr. Harper." Oliver said, extending his hand.

"Mr. Mayor." Roy replied with a smirk, shaking his hand before pulling him in for a hug. "We've missed you guys."

"You too." Oliver said before turning to his sister who wasted no time jumping into his arms, nearly crushing him in a hug. "Missed you too."

"It's so good to see you!" Thea shouted right in his ear.

Partially deaf, Oliver released his sister and followed them as they got into the car. One of the nice things about being in Keystone was that his security hadn't followed him. Knowing that Thea was a QC President, they were content with allowing her security look after him for the weekend.

That was after Oliver told Cole he would be okay with it.

"So what are you two doing in Keystone for the weekend?" Roy asked as the driver pulled away.

"Well, I have a meeting with the Mayor." Oliver lied.

"Bullshit." Thea said, calling him out as he should have expected she would have done. "I talked to the Mayor yesterday and she didn't have anything on her schedule."

"I thought as majority owner of QC I would come check how our most profitable branch was doing?" Oliver said, obviously spitballing to come up with something.

"I am also half-majority owner as I control 50% of that trust and I'm also the head of the most profitable QC branch. You could have just called."

"Holy shit!" Roy exclaimed suddenly, pointing at Felicity's hand. For a second, Thea just stared, obviously not really sure what to make of it.

"Oliver?" Thea asked nonplussed.

"Dammit Roy." Oliver mumbled with a grin before turning back to Thea. "We came out here to tell you that we're engaged."

Again, Thea just sat there, her mouth agape, for several seconds. Then, all at once, she seemed to realize what had just happened, launching herself out of her seat at him.

"Oh my god, Oliver! I can't believe it!" Thea shouted as she hugged Oliver and kissed him on the cheek.

"You and me both." Felicity smirked at the pair of Queen siblings.

"Seriously? How awesome is this?" Thea said to Roy as she shifted back into her seat. "I can't imagine you getting married."

"I couldn't either." Oliver admitted. "When I returned from the island, I thought there was no way. Definitely not before the island but then someone shot up a laptop that I needed information from and Walter pointed me towards Ms. Felicity Smoak."

"Soon to be Felicity Queen!" Thea shouted before grabbing Felicity's hand. "This is going to require several shopping weekends."

"Oliver?" Felicity asked, obviously concerned for her safety.

"If she wants to, obviously." Thea backtracked.

Oliver couldn't help but laugh and turn to Roy.

"How does she get anything done at QC?"

"You know I don't have a goddamn clue." Roy said with a grin before taking a punch in the arm from Thea. "I mean that  _she is a master of time management._ _"_

"Better." Thea grinned before turning back to Oliver. "Did you tell Mom?"

"What do you think?" Oliver growled.

"Just curious."

* * *

Later that evening, Oliver found himself in an unusually familiar place: Verdant or at least the Keystone City version that Roy ran. What is even more familiar was the secret door hidden in the back leading to a basement with gear that wouldn't have been out of place in Queen Mansion's ArrowCave.

However, there was one different thing.

"Oliver Queen, man am I glad to meet you!"

"Who the hell is this?"

"This is our Felicity." Thea said shortly. "Oliver, meet Lucas Carr."

"Call me Snapper. Everyone else does." he said as he stood from their bay of computers. "I provide tactical support for the Red Arrow and Arsenal."

Grating his teeth, Oliver shook the man's hand before turning to Thea.

"Can we speak?" Oliver growled, the voice he normally reserved for the Green Arrow sneaking out.

"He's cool, Ollie. I ran more background checks on him than it takes to get into the Secret Service. I started receiving emails with information on criminals activities in Keystone about a month after we got here." Thea said briskly. "Thankfully, Felicity taught me some stuff and I was able to trace his emails back to a public computer he was using. Then, I stalked the place until he showed up."

"And you did what?"

"Well, I had Roy hang him off the roof of one of the city's taller buildings." Thea smirked. "Apparently his father was killed and his mom sold into sex slavery when he was young. He spent years in foster homes before one of his grandparents found him."

"How good is he?" Oliver asked.

"He's no Felicity. Honestly, he's not even really me but then his role is a bit different. I'm actually the hacker. He's more just another set of eyes that we can use. He also keeps all of the equipment in top shape. Apparently, he spend some time as a metal worker. It took him about ten months to really get into the swing of things but he's useful."

"And you just informed him of my identity?"

"Oliver, my name is Thea Queen." Thea replied with a knowing look. "I'm the Red Arrow. I'm from Starling City where there is a Green Arrow. It's not a hard connection to make."

"How has no one else made the connection?"

"I was less obvious than you were when you first started. I got the advantages of knowing the mistakes that you made when I first started. So, you remember that Roy moved out here about a month before I did. Well, he was active right away. However, I waited nearly three months after my arrival before making an appearance. At the very least, it changes up the timeline."

While Oliver didn't like unknown factors (he never had), he could see that Thea had done her homework to make things as secure as she could here in Keystone.

So as Thea and Roy got ready, Oliver and Felicity settled in behind "Snapper" as he got to work on organizing something on the computer in front of him. Next to him, Oliver could see Felicity twitching, fighting her very hardest to sit still and not go and fix whatever issues it was that she saw.

"Felicity, you're the computer genius." Thea said, clad in her red Arrowsuit. "Tell him to get the hell out of your way and do whatever it is you want to do."

"I didn't want to be rude." Felicity mumbled.

"Lady, I don't know anything other than your name but Thea and Harper have described you as some kind of wizard. I'm good with computers and information but I'm no wizard." Snapped said, sliding out of the way so that Felicity could step forward.

"Oh thank god." Felicity said, breathing a sigh of relief before scooting her chair forward.

Within fifteen minutes, updates were running and the system was linked with the set up in Starling City. Feeling much better, Felicity slid back and let Team Arsenal go to work. As Oliver watched Roy do the briefing for their evening (they were going to be attacking the suspected home of a local drug ring), he couldn't help but feel proud of him. Remembering back to the angry boy Roy had been before he had met Oliver, Oliver could hardly see the same person now.

Even with the small amounts of Mirakuru that still raged through his system, when Oliver looked at Roy, the word that instantly popped into his head was control, something that Roy had had little of when he first started with Team Arrow.

Within minutes, Thea and Roy were out on the streets with Oliver in the strange position of being a guest in someone else's lair and watching as his younger sister and her boyfriend fought crime in a city he was largely unfamiliar with.

"This is what I feel like sometimes." Felicity joked as she noticed Oliver twitching in his seat.

"Now I know." Oliver joked.

For the next hour or so, Oliver listened as Snapper talked with both Thea and Roy to set up the attack on the dealers. Thea was right, Snapper was very good as an extra set of eyes and with the improvements that Felicity had made to their system, he was very good at helping plan the attack.

"You ready?" Snapped asked once it seemed that everything was set. "Remember, I have twelve men inside and it's likely that all of them are armed."

_"Red Arrow in position."_

_"Arsenal in position. We are go."_

Seconds later, the sound of the Keystone ArrowCave was filled with the sound of gunfire over Thea and Roy's comms. The sound felt like it lasted forever and Oliver noticed Felicity place her hand on his arm, which he hadn't noticed was clenched with worry.

"Wait a minute, that isn't possible!" Snapper suddenly shouted before typing something furiously. Just as Oliver stood to see what the problem was, the sound stopped suddenly.

_"Overseer, we have a problem."_

Oh no. That was Roy's voice.

"What is it, Arsenal?"

_"We managed to eliminate about four of the group. However, the moment we entered, another dozen or so came from somewhere else in the facility. I'm guessing a sheltered basement. They've captured Red Arrow and are moving her to their vehicles as we speak. I can't take them on my own."_

Oliver would have recognized that request anywhere.

"I'm on my way." he said as he stood by the computer bay. "Do you have extra equipment here?" Oliver asked Snapper.

"Yeah, let me show you." Snapper replied, standing in place before Felicity came over to the pair of them.

"You can't take a bow out there with you, Oliver." Felicity said quickly. "Oliver Queen comes to Keystone just as The Green Arrow makes a brief disappearance from Starling and appears in Keystone."

"What do you expect me to do, Felicity?" Oliver asked desperately. "That's my sister out there!"

"Actually, I do have an idea."

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, Oliver was driving out of the back of the Verdant basement dressed a bit differently than he normally would have. Apparently, when Thea and Roy moved to Keystone, Felicity had shipped spares of Oliver, Diggle and Laurel's gear to be stored there in case they were ever needed.

So rather than dressed in his typical green, he was armed with two sidearms and dressed in black, using Diggle's guise as The Hood. Needless to say, it was a strange experience. Following the GPS on the motorcycle he had borrowed, Oliver caught up with Roy, who was racing behind a pair of black vans on the freeway.

"Arsenal, come in." Oliver said as he pulled alongside him going nearly 90 MPH.

_"Arsenal here. Strange look, Hood."_

"You're telling me." Oliver mumbled before getting to the task at hand. "Which one is she in."

_"Not sure. I wasn't able to get outside before they had already put her in the back of the vans. I tried to get Overseer to scan the trucks but they must be lead-lined or something."_

"OK. How do you want to do this?" Oliver asked as they weaved around a set of cars that would have boxed them in had they not moved quick.

_"What?"_

"This is your city. It's your show." Oliver replied, trusting Roy to make the right decision.

_"OK."_ Roy replied, the surprise obvious in his voice.  _"We take one of the vans. If she's not in that one, we follow the other one to its destination and go from there."_

"Good enough for me." Oliver answered. "You get the left, I take right."

_"Got it."_ Roy said, gunning his bike into another gear to catch up with the trucks. However, as they approached the van in the back of the convoy, they realized that they were being tailed and started driving all over the road.

"We can't take it down like that." Oliver said firmly. "If we take out the tires and she's in there, we'd risk her being thrown out of the van when it starts flipping."

_"Then, I'll give them a target."_ Roy replied before racing out in front of the van, stopping directly in front of them. Sure enough, the driver and his passenger took the bait, worried more about the target in front of them than the one behind them.

Their mistake.

As they shot at Roy, they straightened out the van, giving Oliver the perfect opportunity. Swinging to the right of the van, Oliver lifted one of the pistols out of his holster and fired two shots, one hitting each tire on the right side of the van perfectly. With those tires flat, the driver was unable to maintain control and started swerving. Thankfully, the fact that he still had two good tires meant that he didn't flip the van.

Instead, he ended up pulling hard to the right and driving hard into the concrete barrier on the edge of the bridge they were on.

However, that didn't end as well as Oliver had planned. Instead of the concrete stopping him, he had been going fast enough that the barrier gave way, sending the van off the edge.

"Stop that other van now!" Oliver shouted as he stopped his bike at the edge of the road. Quickly, Oliver raced to the edge of the bridge and looked down where the van was slowly submerging into the river below. It being January Oliver knew that time was of the essence. However, he was also going to be working on his own timer.

If Thea wasn't down there, he was going to be jumping into the river for nothing. At some point during the chase to the bridge, Oliver had realized that it was possible that every member of the gang that had kidnapped Thea now knew her identity. While Oliver didn't like killing, he wasn't about to have Thea's identity compromised because he didn't enjoy taking a life.

Suddenly, his comm snapped to life.

_"Hood, Thea's tracker just activated and it's in the West River."_ Felicity said over the piece in his ear.  _"She was in that van!"_

"Tell Roy and get out here in a vehicle that has heat. Two of us are going to be very cold."

With that, Oliver removed his earpiece, stowing it in a pocket and threw his two guns onto his bike. Taking a deep breath, Oliver dove. Normally, when you jump off a 30 foot bridge, it feels like no time at all before you hit the water. However, when you're jumping into freezing water, knowing that your sister is somewhere under that water, time felt as slow as possible.

Breathing deep, Oliver hit the water like a bowling ball crashing into the water. Instantly, that breath that he had taken was ejected from his lungs by the icy temperature of the water. Quickly, Oliver got his bearings and noticed the still closed van was sinking further and further into the water below him. Swimming as fast as he could, Oliver reached the back of the van.

His body was already fighting him and he could barely moved as he retrieved a knife from the belt that he had brought with him. Sticking the knife just on the outside of the lock, Oliver was able to slice quickly around the lock, allowing him to remove the outer mechanism. With that, Oliver reached in and stabbed, breaking the metal on the lock and flinging the door open.

The first thing Oliver had noticed was that the van had been completely full when it had left the warehouse where Thea and Roy had attacked them. Once the door opened, six of the dealer's men flooded out of the door, fighting to the surface. Normally, he would have taken them all down in the water but he had other concerns.

Namely Thea, bound to the steering wheel.

Working quickly, Oliver stepped forward and grabbed Thea's hand. Motioning with his hand what he was about to do, Thea readied herself.

In one motion, Oliver dislocated his sister's thumb, allowing her hand to slip through one of the cuffs before replacing the thump. Fighting the cold, the pair of them worked their way to the surface, forced to fight for every single stroke.

After what seemed like days of swimming under the icy water, Oliver breached the surface with his sister behind him. Looking around, he saw that the six men were working their way towards the shore. Taking the comm out of his waterproof pocket, Oliver placed it in his ear.

"Arsenal, I have Red Arrow. Six men getting out in the river. How many left at your end?"

_"Originally, there were twelve. Now, there are none. They got sent off the other side of the bridge and no one jumped in to help them."_

"Good." Oliver said. "I need a weapon down here."

_"Look up."_

As he did, Oliver saw one of the pistols that he had brought with him being thrown towards him by Roy. Knowing that he only had one real opportunity to catch it, he focused on moving as quickly as he could, fighting against every instinct to hold still, and caught the pistol. With the gun in hand, Oliver turned, treading water, and swiveled the barrel towards the six heads floating towards the shore.

BAM. BAM. BAM. BAM. BAM. BAM.

Six shots, six kill shots. With that taken care of, Oliver disassembled the gun and dropped the pieces, with the exception of the handle where there could potentially be full fingerprints, into the river. Fighting towards the bridge, Oliver grabbed the line that Roy had dropped with one arm and Thea with the other.

"Pull."

Despite the fact that he was pulling up two people, fully armored and soaking wet, Roy seemed to have no problem as the pair of them were steadily lifted to the bridge where Roy, Felicity and Snapper were waiting with a van.

"Let's get out of here." Oliver said as he pushed the pair of them into the van with police sirens in the background. "The last thing I need is to get arrested in Keystone."

* * *

The next morning, after checking on Thea to make sure that she didn't have hypothermia, Oliver and Felicity took their plane back home and had a very pleasant Sunday at home.

Unfortunately for Oliver, his Monday would be anything but pleasant.

With Diggle still in the hospital, Oliver's new driver had been late to show up, forcing Oliver to unearth one of his own cars and drive it in to work. However, this meant that Oliver's normal level of security, which he really didn't need, was now non-existent.

Of course, this would be the morning that he needs it. As Oliver approached the parking garage, he noticed a crowd forming around the entrance. Only when he got closer did he notice what the signs they were holding said. The main gist of all the signs was that it was an anti-Oliver Queen protest. Some of them protested his lack of formal education while others protested his previous exploits in the media.

However, the majority of the signs implied that Oliver had purchased the right to be Mayor. Unfortunately, they weren't entirely wrong. While Oliver hadn't bought any votes or rigged anything, he had outspent both of his competitors combined 2-to-1. While it was within his legal right to do it, especially considering he did it with his own money, there were obviously those who disagreed with the way that Oliver had chosen to spend his own money.

As he exited his car, he noticed Michael walked towards him.

"How often are those people there?"

"Every morning so far." Michael informed him. "Normally, Cole forces them to vacate since they don't go through the legal channels to protest."

"OK." Oliver said softly as he got into the elevator. "I want to see Cash later today and I want you to coordinate with him and figure out who's organizing these protests."

"Why?"

"So I can invite them in and have a meeting with them."

"Mr. Mayor?"

"I don't condone the way they're choosing to protest. So,I'll bring their leader into my office and we'll talk. If he still disagrees, I'll give his people the permits to protest legally. Either that will turn them to my side or they'll lose interest because they won't be breaking any laws."

"You certainly are a bit out of the ordinary, sir."

"You wouldn't be the first person to tell me that." Oliver said with a smile. "Now, what's the schedule for this morning?"

Looking down at his phone, Michael began reading back Oliver's schedule for the day.

"Well, you have Ray Palmer now-"

"Palmer's here? When did he schedule his appointment?"

"The morning after the Welcoming Ball." Michael said before continuing on. "Steel workers labor union luncheon at Noon, the Deputy Mayor at one and then a meeting with the head of the Starling Chapter of the NAACP at four."

"What's that meeting about?"

"Your staff is all white." Michael replied. "He's not happy. Apparently, he did this with Donner during his second term when he fired William Warner and replaced him with Joe Randall."

"He does know that I interviewed more women and minorities than white candidates, right?"

"Probably doesn't matter to him." Michael said before sitting down at his own desk, allowing Oliver to go into his own office where Ray was waiting for him. "Mr. Palmer."

"Mr. Mayor." Ray said as Oliver closed the door and took his seat behind his desk.

"What can I do for you, Ray?"

"I heard about the incident at the Welcoming Ball." Ray said softly. "I'm sorry to hear about John."

"Diggle isn't dead." Oliver countered sharply. "What are you doing here?"

"I thought that maybe you could use my help."

"With what?" Oliver asked with uncertainty.

"Well, you're now a man short on your nightly activities." Ray suggested. "I thought that I could fill in for him for the time being."

"Ray, we talked about this already." Oliver said, obviously bothered by the fact that Ray would even ask. "I started this crusade in the field on my own. I still have Laurel out there with me. You'll go out into the field when you're ready."

"I feel like I've been training very well."

"You have...for three weeks." Oliver said, putting emphasis on the lack of time. "Give it time, Ray. I know you're just aching to get out there but I can't just let you go out there without being prepared. What happens if someone out there can drain your suit's power? Then, it's just you on him or her. Right now, that person is going to win about 50% of the time. I just can't let you go out there with those odds."

"And if I go out there on my own?" Ray challenged.

"Ask Helena Bertinelli what happens to vigilantes who work in my city without my permission." Oliver replied evenly.

"I'm not interrupting something, am I?"

Looking up, Oliver saw one of the last people he would have expected to walk into his office.

"Barry?"

Sure enough, there was Barry Allen, guest pass and all, standing in his office. Knowing Barry as well as he did, the fact that he was there was worrisome. But it was how he looked that truly worried him. He looked like someone on withdrawal, he was constantly twitching and shaking as if he couldn't prevent himself from moving.

"I'm sorry if I'm interrupting something, I can leave." Barry said, his voice withdrawn and weak.

"No, Ray was just leaving." Oliver said before turning to Ray. "You're doing a good job, Ray. You've just got to be willing to give it time."

"Thanks, Oliver." Ray said with a small smile before stepping out of the office. Once he was gone, Oliver shut the blinds to his office and went to go sit Barry down when he realized that Barry was resisting him.

"Barry, what is it?"

"I didn't, I had no idea, to go. I mean where to go." Barry said quickly. Too quickly. "I need. Help, need I."

"I need you to take a deep breath, fight whatever is happening, slow down and speak."

Taking a deep breath, Barry started speaking slowly. Very slowly.

"I. Can't. Stop. Myself." Barry said, using each word as a sentence to prevent himself from racing through them. "Too. Much. Speed. No. Control. Of. Powers."

"No control? Can you show me?"

"Sure." Barry said shortly before attempting to sit down on the chair in front of him. Attempt was the key word because when he hit the chair, it was as if his body went into overdrive, vibrating uncontrollably, and he phased his body straight through the chair. Moving quickly, Barry was able to control the vibration to keep from vibrating straight the floor of his office.

"Oh yeah, this is going to be a problem."

 


	6. The Man in Yellow

Oliver moved as many meetings around as he could but it still meant that he had to be in the office until 2 PM. During that time, Oliver told Barry to keep moving. So he did. There were reports all afternoon of sightings of The Flash saving people throughout Starling City and even up to Coast City. Meetings with the Deputy Mayor and the leader of the NAACP were boring and full of accusations that Oliver wasn't taking their problems seriously enough.

Well, Oliver had provided more city funds for both of their main problems (industry and social services for those below the poverty line) than any mayor in the last forty years, but that didn't mean anything apparently.

It probably had something to do with the fact that Oliver kept focusing on that chair that Barry had phased straight through. Something was very wrong with him. Outside of Diggle and Roy, Barry was probably the best friend that Oliver had.

To think that something was going wrong with his powers, it was unsettling to say the least.

Once Oliver thanked the leader of the NAACP, he made his way to Michael's desk.

"I'm going to be working from home tonight." Oliver said softly. "Felicity's not feeling well so I'm going to go look after her."

"Call forwarding?"

"If it's important, put it through to my cell. If not, just leave a message on the home phone and I'll check them before I come in tomorrow morning."

"Absolutely, Mr. Mayor. Tell Ms. Smoak to feel better."

"I will." Oliver said before making his way to the elevator. Once he was on the base floor, he was met by Diggle's sub for the day who had been called in during the morning after failing to show up.

"Mr. Queen, my apologies for this morning."

"Apology accepted." Oliver muttered while throwing the keys at him. "Now get me home."

The drive was quick and as they pulled in, Oliver texted Barry, telling him to come to Queen Mansion. As Oliver watched this new driver pull away, he suddenly felt a breeze kick up behind him. Turning around, Oliver saw Barry, dressed in the bottom half of his Flash suit with the top half of his normal clothes and his mask pulled up over his eyes.

"You want to finish that?" Oliver said, motioning to his attire.

"Oh." Barry said simply before spinning in place, the rest of his Flash suit replaced by his regular wardrobe. "Better?" Barry asked, twitching while he spoke.

"Barely." Oliver said before turning and walking into the house. As they entered, Oliver quickly led Barry to the entrance of the ArrowCave. Well, as quickly as he could anyway. With his own access, Barry raced across the main entrance of the building and into the ArrowCave, barely waiting for the door to open before racing inside.

Taking off into a sprint, Oliver raced down into the cave after activating his remote override of the security system. With that, the guards in the security room would get a look at a looped feed for a minute before returning to normal. That way, they would never see Oliver or Barry or the blur he made enter the building at all.

Reaching the base level of the ArrowCave, Oliver watched as Barry flitted all around the ArrowCave, looking at the most recent updates that Felicity had made down there. For several minutes, Oliver let Barry go before he slowly realized that Barry wasn't going to stop.

"Barry." Oliver said simply, causing Barry to stop dead in his tracks in the middle of the cave.

"Yeah? What?" Barry said, using the two words solely as questions.

"How long have you been like this?"

"Two."

"Days?"

"Yeah." Barry said, obviously fighting to keep still at this moment. Even then, there were the tics and tremors, motions caused by the very effort of trying to keep still. "Two. Days. Can't. Stop."

"What did Caitlin say?" Oliver asked.

"Doesn't. Know. Iris. Either. Didn't. Want to. Worry."

"You didn't tell anyone?" Oliver asked in shock. "You just came to Starling. When did you come up with that bright plan?"

"Thirty minutes."

"Before you left?"

"Before. I. Arrived."

"Before you arrived?"

Oliver gave those words a second to sink in. Thirty minutes from Central to Starling was blazing fast. Before Wells had disappeared, Oliver had heard of Barry's speed reaching well over a thousand miles per hour. However, this was different. Oliver wasn't a math genius but Barry had to be running at over 4,000 MPH. That was fast enough to tear up the concrete he ran on and tear forests apart.

"What in the world is going on?"

Turning around, Oliver saw Felicity sprinting down the stairs in heels. Smirking, Oliver watched as she approached him, a nervous smile on her face.

"I have my computer linked to the one here." she explained before the question could be asked. "When you guys entered the cave, my computer alerted me."

"Ah."

"What's he doing here?" Felicity asked in confusion, motioning at Barry.

"He's having some problems." Oliver whispered. "His powers are overcharged. It took him thirty minutes to get here."

"From where?"

"His home." Oliver said simply.

"His home? In Central City?" Felicity asked, an eyebrow cocked.

"Exactly. If he doesn't control himself, he talks in sentences too fast for us to hear and he phases directly through objects. He can't sit still and he can hardly stand without racing out of the room."

"Sounds like he's got too much energy." Felicity said as she saddled in at her computer. "Do we have the data from Caitlin yet?"

"Sounds like he didn't tell anyone in Central City. He said he didn't want to worry them."

"I'll get them on the next flight out." Felicity said softly before looking up at Barry, whose hands were twitching to the point of near-invisibility. "What are we going to do about him?"

"I'm not sure."

* * *

Nearly five hours later, Oliver had been napping in the cot in the upper levels of the ArrowCave when the access door opened. Looking down, Oliver saw Caitlin and Cisco enter, each of them instantly taking in their surroundings as they walked. Unfortunately, Laurel was still at City Hall, unable to get away from work for the evening. Following them was Ray Palmer. Oliver figured if they were going to figure this out, they were going to need all the brainpower they could get.

So, Ray finally got his wish: he was entering the ArrowCave as a team member for the first time. Once everyone was in, Oliver jumped down from the upper level to the main level with half of his Arrow gear on. The top half was simply a black t-shirt that Oliver had trained in earlier. Gently, Oliver approached the main table where everyone had seated.

Everyone other than Barry, that is. Barry was still racing circles around the Cave, playing with things and generally causing bits of mayhem everywhere. Failing to suppress just a hint of a smile, Oliver sat at the head of the table.

"So here's the deal." Oliver said simply to begin. "For those of you that are unaware of exactly what's happening, Barry's powers are out of control and it's only getting worse. When he got here, he was unable to stop himself from moving but could limit himself to fidgeting for seconds at a time before returning to motion. Now, he hasn't stopped moving and talking in nearly an hour."

"We're going to need to run some tests if we can do anything." Caitlin said informatively. "Somehow, we're going to need to stop him."

"What about a tranquilizer?" Felicity asked. "Maybe we can get him to fight it for a couple seconds."

"That would be long enough for me to hit him with an arrow."

"What are the odds that will work?" Ray questioned.

"Small." Cisco said before turning back to Oliver. "Ollie, we can't get him to sit still when his powers aren't super-raging. What are we supposed to do?"

"I'm not sure." Oliver admitted.

For several seconds, no one spoke until Felicity had an idea.

"How does Barry get his powers?"

"Well, in case you forgot, there was this lightning strike-" Cisco joked before Felicity interrupted him.

"Yes, that happened once and supercharged his cells but where does the power come from now? That lightning bolt may have sustained it for a brief period but we can't imagine that it would keep his powers running like this forever."

"Well, there was that crazy theory that Barry had." Caitlin muttered.

"Go on." Oliver urged.

"Basically, Barry suggested that the lightning bolt didn't actually grant him his powers. Instead, the power within the bolt granted him access to something that Barry nicknamed Speed Force. Basically, it is a dark-matter-like force of cosmic energy that has the power to project things at a speed much faster than normal."

"That sounds absolutely insane." Oliver said with a smirk. "Of course, I'm the only person here who wouldn't understand that."

"I'm a certified genius and I only understand half of it." Cisco mused before Caitlin continued.

"Barry originally came up with this idea around the time we fought Blackout. He pulled the power from Barry, literally. While the chemicals remained in his system, that lightning bolt and the energy that came from it was removed. However, when we struck him with that energy again, Barry's speed nearly doubled that day without any more effort required of him."

"He thought that somehow that second bolt of energy gave him more access to that Speed Force." Cisco explained. "It also explains what happened when he went against the Reverse-Flash the first time."

"How so?" Oliver asked, his brain spinning.

"Well, that Flash also had access to the Speed Force and it seemed that he had that access for longer. That access granted him more speed. It's how he was faster and stronger than Barry that first time."

"What about the next time?"

"Barry worked harder." Caitlin interrupted. "We did a check and his musculature was no different than four days after the lightning strike. However, over time, Barry's speed nearly quadrupled. In fact, we've asked him to stop checking how fast he can run because we're afraid of the answer."

"Afraid?"

"Ever seen Back to the Future?" Cisco asked. When Oliver nodded, he continued. "While the science is complete junk, the theory behind the time travel, at least as far as we know about time travel, seems to be fairly correct. With enough energy and speed, you could slip in between the fragments of time as they exist. With enough focus, you could even select which one you wanted to go to."

"You're afraid that Barry will do it without the focus and get lost in time?" Ray asked.

"We are." Caitlin confirmed. "There's no telling the limits of his speed. It's why it makes sense for something like this Speed Force to exist. Physically, Barry is no different but the speed he's been able to gain over the years is entirely impossible to explain. There isn't even a corresponding increase in physical output when he runs. He's just simply faster."

"Without being too pessimistic, it is possible that this is just the next evolution of his powers?" Oliver questioned, knowing how much he fear the answer. For nearly a minute, Oliver looked down to Caitlin. While Ronnie had returned from the dead, things had never really been the same for them. Ronnie had moved to Keystone to work as Firestorm while Caitlin remained in Central City to work with Barry.

Part of the reason she had stayed was racing around the room as they spoke. Felicity had always been closer to Barry's team that Oliver had but Caitlin had called him in the night about two years earlier, crying. This was right about the time that Iris and Barry had been having trouble. Eddie Thawne, Iris' ex-boyfriend, had returned to Central City after nearly six years of being listed as missing. No one really knew where he had been and the story that he gave about some shady government dealings smelled terribly.

For some reason, Barry and Eddie, fairly decent friends before his disappearance, couldn't stand each other now. When Eddie had been accepted back on the force, Barry had resigned, moving into the private sector to work as a scientist. And when Iris had started spending more time with Eddie, Barry had moved out, saying that he couldn't trust Eddie.

It had taken them nearly a year to work everything out. It helped that about six months later, Eddie disappeared again, this time taking a job as a Police Captain in Starling City.

During that year away, Barry had almost given up on being The Flash. Reports of him being seen around town were dwindling and there was a serious consideration that he had died or retired.

It was on one of Barry's darkest nights that Caitlin had called. She had started by telling Oliver her entire life story, which Oliver would have seriously protested against if he didn't think it had been leading somewhere. She told him that when she had first been assigned by Dr. Wells to work on Barry, she had resented him, imagining him as a physical representation of the accident that had killed her fiance.

However, when he had awoken, she had realized what a good-natured person he was and she was grateful to know him. Then, it was even more than that. She realized that every time he left STAR Labs to go on patrols, she wanted to beg him to stop. She knew how much good he was doing for the city but even then, she wanted him to be safe more than anything.

She loved him.

So, she had called Barry's best friend, Oliver Queen, for guidance. At first, Oliver had no idea why she had called him of all people. When he asked, her reply had been simple.

"Because you loved Felicity, even when you thought you couldn't have her."

She was right as Oliver found was frequent with Caitlin Snow. So, Oliver gave her the best advice he could.

"Do everything you can to make the people you love happy. Sometimes, that means that we get to be their one and only. More often than not, it simply means being there when they need you."

In the two years since that phone call, Oliver had received a few phone calls from Caitlin but none like that one.

As he remembered that time with her, he looked down to the far end of the table where she sat, waiting for an answer.

"Yes." she said softly, a small tear leaking out of her eye. "This very well could be the next step in his abilities and if it is, there's nothing we can do about it."

Standing, she rubbed a hand in each eye.

"Where's the restroom?" she asked, obviously needing a moment alone.

"I'll show you." Oliver said as he stood and walked to the other end of the table. "I'm not much help in here right now anyway."

Walking passed Caitlin, Oliver lead her down two levels within the Cave, leading her to the lockers where the restrooms were. Thanking him, Caitlin stepped inside for a minute or two. Apparently, she hadn't been expecting Oliver to wait for her because when she stepped out of the locker room with her head down, he caused her to jump.

"Sorry, didn't mean to frighten you."

"I could have found my way back." Caitlin snapped.

"I know you could have." Oliver said calmly. "That's not why I stayed."

"Oh."

"How are you doing?" Oliver asked with concern.

"I'm doing fine." Caitlin said as she tried to walk through him. Unfortunately for her, Oliver didn't move and instead looked down to her face, giving her a knowing look. Once she saw that look, her facade cracked and she slumped in place. "I don't know what to do. I've resigned myself to the fact that I'm not going to have to him. But if this was what was left of him? I don't know if I could deal with that."

"You know we're not going to let that happen." Oliver said softly. "I know you care about Barry. But I think you forget that almost every person in that room knows and loves Barry. He's like my little brother who's way smarter than I am. We're not about to let him turn into some freaked out blur. We'll figure something out."

With a weak smile, Caitlin leaned in and gave Oliver a brief kiss on the cheek.

"Thanks, Oliver."

"Not a problem." Oliver said with a grin. "Now, let's go save us a speedster."

* * *

An hour of attempting to trap Barry eventually proved fruitful when Oliver struck him with a tranq dart. However, the amount of sedatives they needed in order to keep him under was massive. Thankfully, with their updated facilities came increased supplies. So while they were basically going to run through their entire stock of sedatives to control Barry, it was going to be worth it once they figured out what was wrong with him.

Unfortunately for them, it was not going to be a quiet night. In fact, something else from Central City had followed Barry here.

"Oliver?"

"I'm seeing it." Oliver said as he watched the monitors in front of him. Much like Wayne's set up in Gotham, one of the far walls was covered in screens. While Oliver had his own smaller set of monitors for the little bit of investigation he did personally, most of the wall was covered in TV screens with local and national news playing at any hour of the day.

Right now, Oliver was focused on the screen at the far right that showed Channel 52-Starling City News. More specifically, it was the image of a yellow blur racing around Starling City.

Reverse-Flash had come to Starling.

In a second, Oliver was on the move, adding his jacket and hood to his gear before equipping himself with as many tricks and traps as he possibly could. Seconds later, he heard the cave door behind them open and turned to see Laurel entering the cave, a determined look on her face.

"The radio reports were right."

"They were." Oliver said solemnly. "Get ready."

"Oliver."

He knew this conversation was going to be had. He didn't have time for it and didn't really want to but he'd learned over the years to ignore that part of his brain and just go with things for a second.

"Felicity." Oliver grinned as he turned back to her, mask in hand.

"How are you going to fight something like this?" she asked in concern.

"I've fought Barry before."

"And he nearly killed you." she reminded him. "It took all of us coming in to help you in order to subdue him. That was just subduing him, that's not actually beating him. We don't want him stopped, Oliver. We need him beaten."

"That's why I've got Laurel." Oliver said as she came to his side full dressed in her Canary gear. "We'll be fine."

"Oliver, I just-"

"Felicity," Oliver said softly, a hand on her shoulder. "I'm going to be very careful. If we can't beat him, we back out. But you know that we've been spending the last three years to defeat Barry in case something like that happened again. All I have to do is up our game. We're not going for containment, we're going for him unconscious."

"You have those steel gloves."

"I'm wearing my Flashproof suit." Oliver said softly. "Steel gloves with force resistors in them and everything."

"What are they for?" Cisco asked, overhearing their conversation.

"Punching Barry while he's running without shattering every bone in my arm." Oliver said simply before turning back to Felicity. "Get them codenames and get them linked into our comms."

"Will do." Oliver said before kissing his future wife softly on the lips. "Keep an eye out for us."

"Always do. Be safe." Felicity countered.

"Always am."

"That's bullshit and you know it." Felicity replied before kissing Oliver again. "Just take him down."

"We'll do what we can."

* * *

About twenty minutes later, Oliver and Laurel rode into the heart of Starling City. Apparently in the twenty minutes since they left Queen Mansion, Reverse-Flash had stopped in front of Queen Tower with the police surrounding him. He said nothing and did nothing other than avoid the shots that the police fired at him.

At this point, it was basically just a stand off. So, when Oliver approached, he and Laurel immediately marched up to Pike.

"Get your men out of here." Oliver said, his voice hidden behind his distorter.

"What the hell do you think you're going to do?" Pike snapped at him.

"More than you can do." Oliver muttered before filing passed the police and into the circle.

In the past few years, Barry and Oliver had worked together on a number of occasions. During those times, the pair had swapped databases on their various targets. The largest file that Barry had in his records was the one on Reverse-Flash. Part of that was related to the murder of his mother but the other part was the very nature of the Reverse-Flash's appearances in Central City.

Apparently, at some point within the last year, Barry had accidentally killed the Reverse-Flash. On that very same day, Dr. Harrison Wells disappeared. The next day, Thawne disappeared again. In his files, Barry had long suspected either men of being his counterpart. On numerous occasions, Barry had witnessed Wells disappearing into a secret room within the STAR Labs building. While suspicious, Barry didn't take note of it until Wells' disappearance. Once that happened, Barry, with help from Cisco, broke into the secret room, revealing a whole list of secrets that Wells had been hiding.

Like the fact that he could walk.

Or the Reverse-Flash suit hung in his secret room.

Or the newspaper from the future with The Flash disappearing.

When Oliver had read these things, he had been shocked. However, it wasn't as shocking as Thawne's file. During an attack by Reverse-Flash on STAR Labs, he killed every member of the SWAT Team.

Every member except for Thawne. Video footage that Oliver viewed later showed Thawne and the Reverse-Flash to be of the exact same size and build. Apparently, this was where Barry's theory of time travel was formed. At first, Barry believed that the Reverse-Flash was a version of Thawne from the future.

Then, Barry killed Reverse-Flash and removed his hood and the face was entirely familiar. It was Harrison Wells. A DNA test later showed that Harrison and Barry's DNA to be a complete match.

Harrison Wells was Barry Allen from the future. Or maybe he was just an alternate version from another dimension or another timeline.

Either way, Barry had thought Reverse-Flash was finally gone. Then, two weeks after his "death", he reappears. After some scanning, Barry had discovered that there were two of them. This one and the one that had been Wells. In the files, Barry repeatedly stated his belief that this was Thawne, taunting him for taking Iris from him.

Either way, who it was under the mask didn't really matter to Oliver right now. What mattered was that he was in Starling City and people could get hurt.

"Get out of my city!" Oliver barked, his bow in hand, arrow at the ready.

**_"You really know nothing, Green Arrow."_** Reverse Flash taunted. _**"You know that the Flash has never beaten me and yet you come out here with a bow and arrow to try and defeat me."**_

"You really think I would come out here with only a bow?" Oliver snapped. "Maybe you underestimate me."

_**"There's nothing to underestimate. You are an ant, I am a boot."** _

"We'll see." Oliver said, hitting the button on the small remote behind him.

That remote was connected to five different crossbows that Oliver had set up on the buildings around Queen Tower. He didn't expect any of them to hit him. What he expected them to do was distract him.

Which is exactly what happened. When Reverse-Flash heard the bowstrings snap, he turned and identified the arrows flying at him. What he didn't identify was the arrow that Oliver had in his bow. It was a new creation that Felicity had come up with called a Swarm Arrow. When fired, it broke into fifty smaller arrows, each with a small amount of one of the world's most powerful tranquilizers in it.

Normally, it would kill a normal human being. Felicity had calculated that this amount would slow Flash (or Reverse-Flash in this case) for about a minute. Oliver was hoping that would be enough time to take him down.

While Reverse-Flash dodged the five crossbow bolts, the 50 arrows crept towards him. Oliver watched as Reverse-Flash turned and noticed the arrows, moving in a rush to get out of the way.

He was mostly successful.

One of the arrows nicked his arm. With the potency of this particular concoction, that would be enough. As the tranquilizer took effect, Laurel circled around to the back of their enemy, ready to attack.

Noticing that he was surrounded, Reverse-Flash went to take off and attack Oliver.

Instead, he stumbled towards him, maybe a bit faster than a normal person would. Unfortunately for him, not fast enough that Oliver couldn't avoid him.

Then, with Reverse-Flash off balance, Oliver struck, landing a crushing right hook. As his head snapped back, Laurel grabbed him from around the neck, holding him in place. With his strength and speed sapped, Oliver went to work on his opponent's body, landing strike after strike. None of the blows affected Oliver thanks to the special gloves he was wearing.

As he struck repeatedly, Reverse-Flash coughed, blood expelling from his mouth as Oliver felt a rib break under the force of the repeated blows. Taking his bow out, Laurel released Reverse-Flash, knowing that their time was about at an end and Reverse-Flash needed to be unconscious when that happened.

Drawing his bow, Oliver fired three arrows, each piercing the man in the stomach. Normally, that level of damage would be a life-threatening wound. For Reverse-Flash, it would simply weaken him.

And unfortunately for Oliver and Laurel, they simply hadn't moved quickly enough. Just as the third arrow hit, Oliver saw Reverse-Flash stand straight. In a single motion that Oliver could hardly see, the three arrows were torn from their place and the wounds healed almost instantly.

_**"You're going to regret that, Green Arrow."**_ Reverse-Flash winced, obviously still feeling the impact of the blows that Oliver had landed.

Then, with a simple rush of yellow, Reverse-Flash was gone passed them as was their opportunity to bring him in without incident.

"Damn."

* * *

Oliver was as angry as he'd been in recent memory when he returned to the ArrowCave. The amount of tranquilizer hadn't been enough. With a little more time, he and Laurel could have knocked the Yellow Speedster unconscious and brought him in and figured this whole thing out.

Because the mystery was no longer just about Barry's sudden influx in power.

The Reverse-Flash hadn't been seen in nearly a year. Now with Barry's issues, he magically reappears. Something about that smelled wrong to Oliver and he was about to find out what.

"Wake him up." Oliver barked as he threw his hood down on the table next to Barry.

Caitlin and Felicity had been seated next to Barry, waiting for Oliver and Laurel to return. Needless to say, they did not have a very positive reaction to Oliver's appearance and his request.

"Excuse me?" Felicity challenged.

"Wake. him. up." Oliver growled, his voice dropping in volume. "He and I need to have a conversation. Now."

"Why?" Caitlin asked softly.

"Because just as his powers start to go haywire, Reverse-Flash shows up in my city. Now, doesn't anyone find this just a bit convenient?"

"You're suggesting that Barry had something to do with it?" Caitlin asked, suddenly standing and doing her best to get face-to-face with Oliver. "That's absurd. I'm not about to let-"

"I don't think Barry had anything to do with it." Oliver reassured her, placing his hands on her shoulders. "But there is no one here that knows the Reverse-Flash better than Barry."

"What do you need to ask him?"

"I need to know which one he is." Oliver said simply. "You've come into contact with two separate versions of the Reverse-Flash. If its Thawne, he'll do one thing. If it's Wells, I would expect another. I need him to look at the video of the coverage and tell me which one it is."

"Any one of us could do it." Caitlin countered. "We've all seen the video footage before. Hell, I've actually seen one of them."

"You couldn't help me." Oliver said sadly.

"And why not?"

"Because I've seen the video footage as well and I don't recognize him."

"What?"

"I've seen all of the video footage of Barry fighting both the Reverse-Flashes and this is neither one." Oliver observed. "He looked older than either of them had been."

"There's another one?" Felicity asked, shaking her head before turning to look at Caitlin. "I can't imagine if we had more than one of our bad guys."

"Tommy and Malcolm Merlyn ring a bell?" Caitlin smirked before sitting back down. "Even if we woke him up, we couldn't get him to sit still long enough."

"Sure we can. Rig him with an IV mix of some of that beta blocker and Tibetan Pit Viper Venom. I only need him awake for a couple of minutes and then we put him back under."

"OK." Caitlin replied before she and Felicity quickly got to work waking Barry up. As they did that, Oliver turned around and approached Ray who was working at one of their newer workstations on something related to do with his new exosuit.

"Ray, I need you to do something for me."

* * *

Thirty minutes later, Oliver was standing at the edge of Barry's bed when he came to. Instantly, Oliver started showing him the video from earlier in the evening. For a few seconds, Barry looked on in confusion. But one look from Oliver and he knew what he was looking for.

"Who is he?" Barry asked shortly.

"You tell me." Oliver shot back.

"I have no idea." Barry replied, a look of terror on his face. "There's another one?"

"Seems so." Oliver answered. "Anyone else on your shit list that could somehow get super speed and wear yellow leather?"

"Funny." Barry said with a chuckle. "Not that I can think of."

"Great." Oliver said, taking a seat next to his friend. "How are you feeling?"

"Better. How drugged up am I?" Barry asked, noticing the IV in his arm.

"Any other person would be dead ten times over." Oliver grinned. "You still freak me out a little sometimes, you know that, right?"

"You would not be the only one." Barry said, smiling as he looked at Caitlin and Cisco. "I think sometimes they're more afraid of me than they are who we fight."

"Why is that?" Oliver asked in confusion.

"Well, you see, it's-" Barry started and stopped, obviously not quite sure how to say what he meant. Finally, he took a deep breath and collected himself. "When I came here to help you find your thief, I saw Team Arrow at its best."

"I think we've got a pretty good set-up now." Oliver said with a grin.

"You do. It's just that we know things got pretty dark for you guys right after that. With Slade and then Felicity leaving and everything."

"Anyway..." Oliver said, obviously not wanting to talk about that dark period.

"Yeah, I saw that team and it was so awesome to watch you guys work." Barry said with a fond grin. "When I got my powers, I instantly tried to get our team to be like that. But there was a difference. Your team grew into that form and it happened fairly organically."

"Yours didn't."

"Exactly." Barry confirmed. "For nine months, I was just a comatose body. Then, for me, they were prison keepers. For them, I was a lab experiment. But then, things changed."

Oliver watched as Barry's eyes traveled from him to his team across the room. The look he gave them was one that Oliver had remembered giving his own team on numerous occasions. It was the visual representation of the camaraderie he felt for his team. It was the same look he had given Diggle when Andy had been born. It was the look he had given Felicity when she'd returned from Gotham.

It was the look he'd given Laurel when he'd carried her sister's lifeless body back to the Foundry.

"They're your family now." Oliver said, finishing Barry's thought. "You wouldn't know what to do without them. You would do anything you could to protect them. And you would give your life if it meant them keeping theirs."

"You know the feeling well." Barry smirked.

"I've known it since the first time Diggle saved my ass out in the field." Oliver countered. "I knew it when I dove into the back of Felicity's car and she didn't turn me into the police. When Roy could have pounded me to death but chose to stop the second earthquake machine instead. It's a love that you can't forget."

"Don't you worry about them?"

"All the time." Oliver admitted. "But Felicity told me several times that they're adults and they make their own decisions."

"It's just that Cisco is like a crazy younger brother. And Caitlin-"

"Caitlin will always be a "what if," won't she?" Oliver suggested. "Like Sara and Laurel with me. If Felicity hadn't been in the picture, there's always a part of me that wonders if I would have still ended up with Laurel. I still love her but I knew it wasn't right."

"I know that Caitlin has a thing for me." Barry smirked. "She's not that good at hiding things from me anymore."

"If you're anything like me, she's just as good as reading you as you are at reading her. Probably better."

"More than likely." Barry smiled. "I spent so much time focusing on Iris after I woke up. If I hadn't, maybe it would have been Caitlin instead of Iris."

"Maybe." Oliver replied. "Now, there is the possibility that the Viper Venom we've been using on you could do some long term damage. So, I'm going to take that out and double down on the beta blocker we've been giving you. You'll be out for awhile until we get this figured out."

"Sounds good." Barry said before his eyes traveled back to his team. "Keep them safe."

"Like they're my own." Oliver said before he watched Barry drift back to sleep. For several seconds, Oliver watched Barry silently sleep before he reached for his bow.

Hopefully, he had been right.

Suddenly, there was a rush and Oliver stood and turned, his bow drawn.

_**"Oliver Queen, Mayor of Starling City and The Green Arrow. Quite the combination."** _

The Reverse-Flash had come to the ArrowCave.

Just like Oliver had expected.

* * *

His bow drawn, he looked down the shaft of his arrow at the yellow speedster standing in front of him. As Oliver had gotten closer, he saw that this was truly a different speedster. He was older than the other two had been. Even at the oldest state they had seen Wells, he had still barely been in his fifties. The lines on this man's face put him somewhere in the seventies or eighties.

But he was still just as fast and that made him just as dangerous.

_**"Did you really think you could get away from me?"** _

"What made you think I was trying?" Oliver said as he lowered his bow. Reaching back, he grabbed the tracer that Reverse-Flash had placed on him as he raced passed him during his escape. "You may be fast but you aren't very subtle. I could feel you putting that there as you took off."

_**"Why didn't you remove it?"** _

"Because what you did once you knew where I was would tell me who you are." Oliver answered. Behind Reverse-Flash, Oliver noticed as Felicity escorted Caitlin and Cisco away from the coming fray. However, he also noticed Laurel had entered the Cave stealthily, hiding in the shadows far away from Reverse-Flash, her bow at the ready.

"If you had simply used the knowledge to create a better plan, then I would have known you were Hunter Zolomon aka Harrison Wells. You see, Wells prefers to plan out his attacks before he makes them, spending weeks tracking his targets before moving in."

Slowly, Oliver stepped forward so that he was only a few feet from Reverse-Flash.

"However, if you saw where I was and instantly came here, you would have been Edward Thawne, Wells' protege. Thawne always preferred action over tactics. Once he had his information, he attacked preferring to use the element of surprise to his advantage."

_**"You seem to have done your homework, Queen. However, I neither waited nor attacked immediately which throws both of your theories out of the water."** _

"It would have." Oliver smirked. "That is, if I hadn't had the tracers programming traced and hacked."

_**"What?"** _

"The second I felt that tracer, I had my team trace its origin and put out a dummy signal. It had been racing all across Starling for the last two hours when in reality, I've been right here. I stopped the dummy signal about five minutes ago."

Finally, Oliver stepped forward and smiled right at his opponent.

"And you came running, Eddie. So you're an older version from further in the future. It doesn't matter because your tactics are still the same."

_**"Very nicely done."**_ Thawne replied, mocking Oliver with a grin. _**"So you know who I am. How is that going to help you stop me?"**_

"I have no interest in stopping you." Oliver admitted. "I just want you to explain what you've done with Barry."

_**"I should have known that you were only interested in helping your friend. Zolomon was right, you are a peculiar little creature. So angry and vengeful and yet if you could, you wouldn't kill me despite the fact that I'm here to end your friend's life."** _

"Talk." Oliver ordered simply.

_**"It's quite simple really. I was given my powers by Zolomon at age 34. I'm now 78 and with each year, my understanding of my abilities increases. I can do more, control more and destroy more with my abilities. I've even found out a way to keep myself from having abilities at all."** _

"Using the Speed Force." Oliver said softly, realizing that his friend's theory is right.

_**"I give no name to the entity that gives me my power. That was always Allen. He seemed to have a fascinating obsession with it. I believe it was due to his poor mother's death. All I know is that all speedsters at a certain point in time share this force. So, I used my abilities to travel back in time to when Barry was less powerful, less in control."** _

"And you started funneling some of your power towards him. That's why you weren't able to avoid my arrows. You're running on a lesser power level than you normally do."

_**"I am.** **"**_ he admitted. _**"However, it is still enough to stop you and plenty to kill Allen especially now that you've been so kind as to knock him out."**_

"I don't think you're going to get a chance to do that."

_**"Why not?"** _

"Because I think he might have something to do with that." Oliver said, pointing behind him. Turning around, Reverse-Flash got to see what Oliver was seeing.

Ray Palmer, code-name The Atom, dressed in the A.T.O.M exosuit for the first time. The exosuit had been retrofitted all afternoon to fight Reverse-Flash. Specifically, it had been designed to draw electricity, utilizing the same technique that Blackout had used on Barry several years earlier. Before Reverse-Flash could react, Ray grabbed Eddie instantly starting to draw power from the speedster.

Unfortunately, he was only able to hold on for so long as Thawne broke free. However, Ray had been successful at draining part of Thawne's energy, severely limiting his speed. With that in mind, Oliver stepped forward.

"Canary, now!"

Out of the darkness came another swarm arrow and this time, more than one hit its mark. With several tips sticking out of him, Oliver and Ray stepped forward. His suit charged with energy, Ray swung and struck Thawne in the chin, causing several teeth to fall out. As Thawne recovered, Oliver lined up his bow, firing a shot directly into Thawne's foot, pinning him to the floor.

As that happened, Laurel jumped down from her perch and drew her staff. With one swing, she knocked the Yellow Speedster to the ground, blood now pouring out of his mouth. Lifting a hand to call of the hounds, Oliver knelt down next to Thawne to look him in the eye.

"You made one fatal mistake here, Eddie." Oliver mused softly. "You came into my home and you underestimated us. You thought that your speed, even the diminished amount you were working with, would win the day. Unfortunately for you, no one comes into my city and takes us down. Not without months of preparation and you just simply don't do that."

_**"Your words mean little, Queen. You aren't going to kill me and no prison you build can hold me."** _

"You're right, I won't kill you and I can't build a prison to hold you." Oliver said as he stood before quickly swinging his bow down, cracking Thawne in the back of the head and knocking him unconscious.

"But I do know someone else who can build one."

* * *

"You're certain there's no way in hell he's breaking out of there?" Oliver asked over the video camera in the ArrowCave.

_"He's not getting out, Queen."_ Wayne replied. _"Using the sonic inhibitors that Barry came up with, we've been able to remove his access to the Speed Force entirely. He's basically powerless while he's in the cell."_

"Good. Queen, out." Oliver said as he cut the line between him and The Batman. Turning around, Oliver saw the entirety of Team Flash and most of Team Arrow, Diggle excluded, standing behind him. "Thawne will be in that cage until he dies."

"That's good to know." Caitlin said with a grin. "Unfortunately, we can't stick around."

"I've got a date!" Cisco shouted.

"Really?" Oliver asked in surprise.

"No." Cisco said sadly. "I'm just really behind in all my work now that we've been here for three days."

"OK." Oliver said with a grin before turning to Barry. "Go to our private airfield. The passcode is Meghan. I'll have a pilot waiting for you."

"Thanks." Barry said with a smile. "For everything."

The issue with Barry's access to the Speed Force hadn't really been resolved. He was still experiencing a lot of the same symptoms that he'd been having when he came to Starling in the first place. However, that was now because he was, as far as they knew, the only speedster left in their time. Thawne had been disabled and the last time Barry had seen Wells, he had raced himself back to his original time.

That left Barry alone as the person with access to the Speed Force in their time. It meant that he had more abilities than ever before but it also meant another process of learning to control them. Caitlin's concern for Barry was still warranted. Without control, he could very well run himself to a different time altogether with no way to get back.

"You're always welcome in Starling City." Oliver said. "All of you."

"Me too?"

That certainly wasn't a voice that Oliver expected. Looking up, he was greeted to the smiling face of his best friend, John Diggle. Sure, he looked weak but he was alive and home.

"Of course." Oliver said with a grin. "Good to see you out of a hospital bed."

"Hell, you barely saw me in the hospital bed."

"Well, between two jobs and a Reverse-Flash sighting in Starling, it got a little hectic."

"I suppose." Diggle replied before turning to Barry. "Too bad you can't stick around for a bit. Haven't seen you in too long."

"Oh, I'm sure that I'll be back soon." Barry replied, shaking Diggle's hand. "If you need anything-"

"I know where you are."

With that, Barry and his team turned and walked towards the entrance. As they did, Diggle walked over and stood next to Oliver. Three of them, three of us. Over the years, Oliver and Barry's teams had worked together on numerous occasions and it was becoming more and more like a large family. With Thea and Roy in Keystone now just minutes from Central City, Oliver expected to see more of Barry Allen and his team.

And he was looking forward to it.


	7. Time In

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Just so you all know, I've started using Tumblr as a place to post some additional thoughts of mine. A fair number of these thoughts may be not related to the stories that I write but such is blogging. However, if you don't want to comment here, but would rather ask a question there, I will answer as often as I check. Username is the same as my pen name here and on fanfiction.net.
> 
> Thanks and enjoy!

It was one of the rare nights that Oliver remained at the office late. In fact, it was well past midnight when Oliver looked at his computer's clock. It was likely that he was the only person in the building right now and Oliver was fine with that.

Because at this point, Oliver wasn't really working on the proposal to the Governor for more state funding.

Right now, he was linked in with Felicity as she guided Laurel through a warehouse down by the docks. For the last month since Barry had been in town, the criminal of the element had nearly disappeared with one exception: a particular gang of international drug smugglers from the Middle East. They weren't known for being particularly dangerous but they were known for being nearly silent. No one discovered their operation and if you did, you died.

Thankfully, Team Arrow wasn't just anyone.

And thankfully for him, Felicity had linked his office computer to the system in the ArrowCave which allowed him to trace exactly where Laurel was at. Between that and the radio link, it was almost like he was there.

Almost. More and more, Oliver found the duties of his office keeping him out of the field. Internally, it seemed to bother him less and less, something that Oliver had noted.

"Canary, confirm eyes on."

_"Oh, I have eyes on. There's enough heroin down there to get the city high several times over."_

"God, I hope you're joking." Oliver said with a grin. "If you aren't, that's a lot of work for me to do."

 _"She's not kidding."_ Felicity replied. _"This is several shipments in one. I think they're anticipating someone shutting down their operation."_

_"There's something else."_

Oliver didn't like that tone in Laurel's voice. Not at all.

"What is it?"

_"You know how you made us go through all of Flash's files a couple months ago? Be glad that you made us do that."_

"Which one?"

_"Farooq Gibran."_

_"Blackout."_ Felicity whispered softly. _"GA, what do you want her to do?"_

Oliver remembered Barry's stories about this particular metahuman. Within the last year, Barry had told Oliver that they had had a mass breakout of their metahuman prison inside STAR Labs. Thankfully, they'd been able to stop most of them without them ever leaving STAR Labs.

Unfortunately, Gibran was not one of those and he'd been out on the loose for nearly a year now. Apparently, he had found work with the Middle Eastern drug syndicate.

"Canary, what do you think?"

_"I think that he can't hit what he can't see. I know what I'm going up against."_

To be honest, Oliver didn't like it. But he knew that he didn't have time to get suited up and get there. With the speed that this particular syndicate worked with, they could very well be gone by the time he got there.

"You have the sonic cry on you?"

_"The Canary Cry is ready to go."_

"And you're confident you can take him down before he sees you?" Oliver asked with concern. Of all the things in life that Oliver couldn't deal with, the total extinction of the Lance family line was the one thing he would never be able to live with. It always made him slightly more careful with Laurel than he needed to be.

But now wasn't the time for that. If those drugs got out into the city, they would be filtered down into every small-time dealer in the city and the last thing Oliver needed on top of everything was an influx of heroin.

"Go in but if he spots you or hits you, you activate the sonic cry and get out of the there."

 _"Got it."_ Laurel replied softly. _"Radio silence."_

For the next several minutes, Oliver sat, his heart nearly pounding out of his chest, as he waited. This was the worst part about the time that he had spent in the office instead of on patrols. In all honesty, Oliver would have rather waited until Diggle was ready before letting the pair of them do this but they didn't have that luxury.

It was unfortunately since Diggle was in the midst of some rather intense physical therapy with Oliver in order to get back out in the field. So far, his recovery was going well but Oliver wasn't about to push the man back out into the field quite yet.

Internally, Oliver had wished that Palmer hadn't been out of town. He would have called the man in for backup this evening once he knew that he was staying in for the evening.

_"Oh shit."_

"Laurel, turn on your outside mic."

Suddenly, Oliver heard the voice of Farooq Gibran aka Blackout. The moment he heard the voice, Oliver was saving the information on his computer and moving down the stairs towards where his car was parked. He was glad that he had asked for his driver to bring him a car today.

Specifically, a car with a copy of all of his Arrow gear stored under the backseat.

_"The Black Canary here? I'm honored."_

_"You're not in charge of this."_ Laurel challenged.

_"I'm not. In fact, I don't even particularly care for the people that I work for. However, you've seen what I look like. Kind of unappealing. So, I do the work that pays me and that includes protecting this shipment."_

_"We can get you money, Farooq. You don't need to do this."_

_"I do. Even before my little accident, I wasn't the nicest of people. I was never going to take my power and be a hero like you, Canary."_

_"So you're just a bad person? That's bullshit."_

Of course, count on Laurel to antagonize the metahuman who was undoubtedly a threat to her. As Oliver reached his car, he hopped in and instantly raced out of the garage, heading towards the GPS ping that was Laurel's tracker.

 _"You don't have to do this."_ Laurel continued. _"You want to do this. Don't give me that I'm just taking the pay. You could have taken pay from anyone. You chose drug syndicates and crime organizations."_

_"You know what I can do, right? You know what I can do and you taunt me?"_

_"I'm going to give you one chance. Just come with me and I won't have to beat the hell out of you."_

_"Amusing."_ Gibran replied softly. _"I think not."_

Suddenly, Oliver could hear the electric sizzle of Gibran's power coursing through his headset. The second he heard that, Oliver gunned the engine, nearly doubling the speed he had been going previously.

"Laurel?"

 _"Shut up, Oliver."_ Laurel growled.

For the several seconds, all Oliver heard was the sound of electricity flowing through the air.

Then, there was something else.

Laurel, screaming in pain. She'd obviously been hit by Gibran. For a few seconds, the line was silence. Then, Gibran spoke.

_"The Black Canary has sung her last song, I'm afraid."_

_"You have no idea."_

Simultaneously, Oliver heard that same electric rush at the same time that he heard the filtered sound of Laurel's sonic cry mixed in with the shouts of pain from the both of them.

 _"Oliver, Laurel's vitals are dropping rapidly. He's draining the life out of her."_ Felicity said, her voice dripping with worry.

"I'm two minutes out." Oliver replied.

_"She doesn't have that long."_

Racing towards the warehouse where Laurel and Gibran were fighting, Oliver dodged the slight amount of traffic at the late hour in the evening before pulling in to the warehouse. As he pulled in, he saw the rest of the crew that had been working with Gibran racing out of the warehouse.

That would make getting in much easier. No longer would he have to sneak in. Instead, he simply removed his jacket and then turned to the backseat, lifting it up to reveal his gear. Deciding that in the darkness no one would notice the different, Oliver neglected to add the leather pants. Instead, he simply threw on the mask and jacket.

Throwing the hood over his head, Oliver grabbed his bow and quiver and stepped out of the car. He knew that this was a slightly inauspicious way to enter the fight but there's was no sense in hiding right now.

Laurel needed him. Taking off a sprint, Oliver entered the warehouse where it looked like a light show was going on. As he entered, he was able to see the scene before him. Laying on the ground, Laurel had the sonic cry extended in front of her, fighting through the lighting that was striking her in the chest. Standing over her was Gibran, a pained look on his face as he fought through the pain of the sonic cry.

Looking at the scene before him, Oliver could tell that Gibran wasn't shocking her, he was draining her like he had with Barry. So, Oliver quickly raced behind him before grabbing Slade's sword off his back and lifted it to Gibran's neck.

"Give it back."

"The Green Arrow? I didn't think you worked in this city anymore." Gibran smirked as Laurel finally couldn't fight it anymore and passed out, the sonic cry still going off.

Quickly, Oliver pulled back on the blade, causing it to draw blood on his neck.

**"Now."**

Instantly, the color of the energy that Gibran was laying out in front of him changed from red to blue. However, that's when something went very wrong. As Oliver looked down at Laurel, the color started to return to her face. But as it did, Laurel's eyes suddenly snapped open and she screamed.

When she did, her voice seemed to amplify the sonic cry and even surpassed it. As she screamed, Gibran couldn't handle the intensity of the cry and passed out, blood pouring from his ears. Thankfully, Oliver's mask came equipped with a set of specifically engineered earplugs that blocked that high level frequency.

Instantly, Oliver knelt down and shook Laurel, trying his best to get her to stop screaming. Finally, she did, passing out with the effort.

"Felicity, we've got a problem."

* * *

The next morning, Oliver had moved a meeting to later in the day so that he could stay in the ArrowCave with Laurel. Since the previous evening, she still hadn't awoken, something that worried both Oliver and Diggle. However, Felicity said that she just believed that she needed time to recover from the trauma that she had experienced.

Either way, Oliver hoped she would wake up soon.

He got his wish around noon. After doing most of his work from the ArrowCave that morning, Oliver looked over to see that Laurel was waking up. Racing over to her quickly, Oliver grabbed his earplugs, fearful of what may come out of her mouth.

"Laurel."

As Laurel opened her mouth to speak, Oliver put a single finger in front of her mouth, indicating that she needed to be quiet.

"Last night, something happened to you. When Gibran hit you with that blast, he wasn't electrocuting you. Instead, he was draining your life energy. However, you were holding the sonic cry out in front of you. So, he was draining from both sources. I came in and managed to get him to push the energy back to you. But when he gave your energy back, he unknowingly also gave you the energy from the sonic cry. When he did that, you screamed and the intensity of it was even higher than your sonic cry. Thankfully, I was wearing my earplugs. Gibran was not so lucky and he nearly died."

As Oliver told the story from the previous evening, Oliver could tell that she was frightened.

"Now, we're going to run some tests. Come with me."

Taking her hand, Oliver led her to a soundproof room at the far end of the ArrowCave. Oliver had removed some of the recording equipment they had stored in there and led her inside.

"Now, I'm wearing my headphones. Can you talk?"

"Of course I can talk, Ollie." Laurel snapped. "Why would you think I couldn't talk?"

"I was afraid that you may not be able to control this new ability. We're not sure what happened to you yet."

"Oh."

"Now, can you scream for me?" Oliver asked.

"Good thing Felicity isn't here. You haven't asked me to do that in years."

"Laurel." Oliver said, rolling his eyes at her. "Just scream."

Needless to say, her first attempt was not very good. She just wasn't into it. So, Oliver decided he need to give her some incentive.

"OK. Laurel, close your eyes."

"Oliver, this is dumb. I didn't absorb the Canary Cry."

"We'll see." Oliver said softly before placing a hand on her shoulder. "Close your eyes. I want you to go back in time a bit. Go back to the day of Sara's funeral. Go back to that evening. You came to my penthouse and you just let it all out. You opened up and you just talked."

"I was so angry." Laurel whispered, tears in her eyes.

"Remember the day that I told you that it was Tommy that had done it. When I told you our story on the island. Remember your father on the steps of SCPD Headquarters."

Oliver could tell that this strategy would work. Her hands were shaking and she was crying real tears now. Realizing that the time was now, Oliver put his other hand on her other shoulder, squaring up to her.

"Your life hasn't been easy, Laurel. You've had loss and failure. Now, let it out."

"What?" Laurel asked softly, looking up at Oliver.

"Let it out. Scream and when you do it, I want you to use that as motivation."

This time, she was slightly more successful. When Laurel screamed, the sound that came out a fierce, piercing scream that literally threw Oliver backwards against the wall behind him. As he landed, his head pounding from both the sound and force, Oliver couldn't help but smile.

"Holy shit. Did I do that?"

"You did." Oliver grinned as he stood. "You know what's funny?"

"What?"

"Sara gave us those sonic cry devices."

"Canary cry." Laurel corrected him.

" _Canary_ cry." Oliver said softly. "She gave them to us and then it was her that let you use it like this. It's almost like she gave you this ability."

"You mean instead of the crazy man who shoots lightning out of his hands?"

"Coming from the district attorney who can now scream at supersonic pitches." Oliver grinned.

"Seems crazy, doesn't it?"

"Yes, it does." Oliver smiled. "Listen, you need to find a work reason to go to Central City for a week."

"Why?"

"I want you to get Caitlin and Cisco to look you over and work with Barry. He'll give you some training on how to control your new abilities just like he did. The last thing we need is you screaming at the top of your lungs at some paralegal and blowing him out of a window."

"That wouldn't be good."

"No, no it wouldn't."

* * *

The next evening, Oliver got off work at his usual hour and made his way home for dinner. Unfortunately, when he did arrive at home, he saw that Felicity's car was already back and that she was nowhere to be found within the house proper. That could only mean one thing.

She was already working in the ArrowCave. If Oliver was working a lot, it was really nothing compared to the work that Felicity was doing. Apparently, Ray was in the process of replacing the company's President, who had left to become CEO at another company. He really wanted Felicity for the job and so she was doing all of her normal work, plus the work required to go through the hoops to become the President of Queen Consolidated. There had also been discussions a name change, something that gave more insight to the worldwide company that QC had become.

So, if Felicity was already down in the cave working, it meant that there was something big going on. Following her lead, Oliver quickly raced down the stairs to find her hard at work at her terminal. Doing his best not to break her concentration, Oliver leaned in from behind her and kissed her on the neck, eliciting a small moan from his fiance.

"Not now, Queen." Felicity growled with a smirk on her face.

"I'm aware. Normally you don't come down here until I get home. I figured with Laurel out of town for a bit, you would have taken the break."

"I would have." Felicity said softly as she leaned back in her chair to look up at Oliver. "If not for an email I received from Bruce Wayne earlier today."

"Jesus, what did he want?"

"Apparently, he intends to call another meeting of the Justice League soon. He wants everyone to be informed on this whole space drone thing he's worried about. Are they really space drones?"

"Seems to be that way." Oliver said as he grabbed a chair and sat next to her. "We both know that kind of thing is not my expertise."

"Which of the many examples should I give to prove that?" Felicity joked before leaning in to kiss Oliver. As usual, the second their lips met, the feeling left the very tips of his fingers and his whole body buzzed with happiness. As happy as his work made him, there was nothing on earth that made him feel as much joy as his life with Felicity gave him.

"How about we just skip that?" Oliver countered. "What did he email you for?"

"For this." Felicity said before pointing to her screens.

On the left screen was a map of the globe with dozens of dots in random locations and on the red screen, a list of names. Some of the names had codenames after them and some didn't. Others were a codename but with no name before it.

"What is this?"

"Look closer." Felicity urged.

So, he did. Suddenly, he noticed his own name on the list with **Green Arrow** following it. Same with Thea, Diggle, Laurel, Roy and their alter egos and Barry and his. But there were dozens of names on the list that Oliver had no idea who they were.

"Are these heroes?"

"Yes." Felicity smiled. "This is the list of suspected masked heroes worldwide. Some of these are rumored like this one. Some guy saved a sinking ship two hundred miles south of South Africa. Big guy and he carried what the survivors described as a trident. The water, normally shark infested, was suddenly clear of all sharks when he showed up."

"Seriously?" Oliver asked.

"Yeah or this guy." Felicity said, motioning to another on this list. "Green and can walk through walls. Superhuman strength working out of Detroit. We've also had rumors of former high school superstar who was nearly killed in a car accident. His father worked for STAR Labs in Los Angeles and used experimental tech to turn him into a cyborg: half-man, half-machine. Finally, there's this young woman who's been working in San Francisco wearing body armor exceedingly similar to that of Slade Wilson."

"What?" Oliver asked, shocked that he wasn't already aware of this.

"Yeah, I've been looking into that one recently. It appears that before he went to the island, Slade had an extra-marital affair with a woman in San Francisco while undercover for ASIS."

"I'm not even going to bother asking how you know this stuff."

"Because the mother, Lillian Worth, requested a paternity test about a year after she was born. That particular clinic did well when they went digital and uploaded all of the documents when they transferred to digital documents. It seems that she was born in early 2000."

"Which would make her only 17 years old." Oliver said softly. "Do you think it's her?"

"She's wearing body armor that is basically the woman's official version of ASIS body armor, which is what his Deathstroke armor was based off of. The mask that she's wearing is nearly identical to his and she's operating in San Francisco where Rose Worth has changed her name to Rose Wilson. The pattern makes sense."

"You say she's doing good things though?"

"She is." Felicity smiled before placing her hand on Oliver's. "Slade would have been proud of her."

"Do you think he knew?"

"Well, when I found out about her, I checked his will."

"And?"

"She received nearly five million dollars upon his death." Felicity said with a grin before turning back to Oliver. "He may have been a psychotic bastard but at least he took care of his daughter."

"Yeah."

This was a lot of Oliver to take in. He knew of Clark and Barry and the rest of the League but the thought that there were even more of them out there baffled him. It just didn't seem possible that there were so many of them out there in the world.

"What are you doing this for?" Oliver asked. "I know Wayne wants this but why?"

"Precautionary measure in case that sci-fi drone army in the sky would attack. Or if Clark would go nutso. Basically, I've created this list. Once I do that, I'm going to dig very, _very_ deep into each and every one of them. Then, if there should ever be a time when the strength of the Justice League alone wouldn't cut it, we call in the cavalry."

"With this many options, the power that we could control could be unlimited."

"Which is why Wayne thought it best that they not be active Justice League members at one time. Basically, they're all on reserve until Wayne upgrades their clearance. Obviously, each of these candidates is going to have to be vetted before they would get any sort of clearance."

"We're talking about vetting again? I feel like I'm back on the campaign trail."

"Back on the campaign trail," Felicity said as he stood and suddenly jumped into Oliver's lap. "You and I had more time for each other. Now, we work too much to get any real time together."

Smiling, Oliver couldn't help but play along.

"Well, it's not going to be truly dark for another hour or so. I think we could make some real time between the two of us right now."

"Really?" Felicity said before leaning in to kiss Oliver passionately. "I think I could alright with that. Just don't try and teach me how to use your bow again."

"After the last time?" Oliver joked. "You're lucky I let you down here at all!"

Rarely did the two of them get any time together anymore. Oliver worked and went on patrols and then slept and repeated the pattern. Felicity worked and then worked the computer and sometimes slept and then repeated the process. The time between the two of them was rare indeed.

Which is why the hour before patrols was each of their favorite hours all week.

* * *

Later that month, Oliver found himself back in a rather familiar place: his old office at Queen Consolidated, now the office of Ray Palmer. After meeting with Felicity for a quick lunch in her office and promising that their date for that evening was on, Oliver walked down to Ray's office to meet with him.

As Oliver walked in, he noticed Ray look up from his work before nodding briefly and returning his work. Deciding to wait until he found a good stopping place, he sat.

That had been nearly twenty minutes ago.

"Ray." Oliver uttered finally. "This won't take long."

Finally, Ray looked up, a little perturbed but obviously willing to talk.

"What can I do for you, Mr. Mayor?" Ray asked, keeping up appearances for his secretary.

"You can follow these directions this evening." Oliver replied, handing him a piece of paper and an ID card. "Follow those directions and it will lead you to a little _get-together_ I'm having at this house this evening."

That "get-together" was patrols and this was the first time that Oliver was inviting Ray to join them. True to his word, Ray had spent the last several months training with Oliver. Each night, he arrived only to get his ass handed to him over and over again before joining Felicity at the computer bay to help with patrols.

"That ID will get you passed the security for the evening and any other time you are invited to these kind of things."

"Mr. Mayor-"

"Oliver," he interrupted.

"Oliver, I don't know what to say." Ray replied, his voice weak. "We're going to do some really great stuff. I can promise you that."

"Just keep doing what you've been doing and we'll be fine." Oliver answered with a grin. "Now, how is my company coming?"

The look on Ray's face was priceless.

"Are you asking seriously or is this something else?"

"No, seriously." Oliver answered. "How is the company doing? Between all of my extra-circulars and work, I haven't been paying too much in the stock value of the company."

"You have over half your wealth tied into this company." Ray replied evenly. "Yours and Thea's. How could you possibly not know what QC's stock price is?"

"Because I'm a little busy running the city, Ray. Now, where are we at?"

Shaking his head with a grin, Ray turned to his computer to check. After doing some quick math in front of him, he turned back to Oliver.

"Up 14% total since the beginning of the quarter and 17% up since I've taken over."

"Then we made a good choice."

"You also got elected Mayor." Ray countered. "The business incentives your administration is offering companies to expand business helps us too."

"Then it's just a double bonus. How's the Foundation coming along?"

"Great." Ray replied softly. "We've opened several new soup kitchens across the city and two new shelters are opening within the next month. We've also been able to use the influx in donations to open our own temp service. Basically, the Foundation is now providing actual employment for those that are down and out. Apparently, we've been able to help 6,000 people who were below the poverty line find some form of employment."

"Keep that up and that employment rate will finally drop below 5%."

"That's the plan." Ray replied before checking his watch. "Now, I really do have to be back to work. I have a meeting with some investors from Sweden in an hour and I need to prep."

"Prep all you need." Oliver said, standing and buttoning his jacket. "See you at 11."

"Sounds good, Mr. Mayor." Ray grinned before Oliver turned and walked out of the office.

Driving back to the office, Oliver had a fairly unremarkable rest of his day. He spent most of it planning for his first City Address, something Oliver had come up with during his election run. Basically, it was a mini-State of the Union for the city. The event would be held at one of the city's high schools and would also be broadcast on one of Starling City's major networks. It would give Oliver the opportunity to get his face back out there.

During his two full months as Mayor, Oliver had made very few televised appearances. This was entirely intentional. Oliver didn't want to be known as the Mayor who was on TV. He wasn't giving speeches and he wasn't making public appearances. What he was doing was working. When Oliver wasn't spending his time on patrols, he was either in the office or at home, working on something. Frequently, Oliver took notes and then passed them to Pete and Myra who turned them into something meaningful and this was how their administration worked.

At closing time, Oliver said goodbye to his staff and then met his driver at the front door who drove him to Il Mio Amato, a restaurant that Oliver had purchased about a year earlier. It was a fantastic Italian restaurant. Unfortunately, it was on the edge of the Glades and the local gangs had been forcing the owner to pay extortion money for years, nearly bankrupting him. So, Oliver put the gang in jail and then bankrolled the restaurant, creating a second location at the other side of town and gave the previous owner 65% ownership.

Needless to say, there was always a table for Oliver when he showed up. So, when he did show up, Oliver met Allesandro, Giovanni's son and the manager for the evening, with a grin and followed him to wear Felicity was already seated in a private room in the back.

As he approached, he could tell that she was tired. She was leaning on her hand, her finger twirling our the lip of the wine glass in front of her. This habit was only something she did when she was desperately seeking an early night, knowing that the opposite was going to happen. Sneaking up behind her, Oliver placed his hands on her shoulders. The moment he did, she sank into his grip, her head falling back and a soft moan escaping her lips.

"God, I missed you today." she murmured before Oliver leaned in to kiss you. Her soft lips were perfect as always. Walking around to the other side of the table, Oliver sat.

"I missed you too." Oliver said with a grin. It was amazing to him. Each and every time he saw her, the amount of joy and love he felt for her grew. The life he lived was very frequently a dark place but Felicity, she was the beacon, the light at the end of the tunnel that let him know that eventually, everything would be okay.

"So how was the rest of your day?" Felicity asked softly before placing her hand on the edge of the table which Oliver quickly covered, craving contact with her after a day apart.

"Fine. I gave Ray his access information and then met with Pete and Myra about the City Address. Looks like we're aiming for the end of March."

"Seems like a good time. You'll be a quarter of the way through your first year."

"Yeah, I've just never been great with speeches. This is kind of going to be the momentum builder for the rest of the first year. We've had the post-election run but that's about to wear off."

"You'll do fine, Oliver. Seriously, when you put your mind to something, how often do you fail?"

"More often than you do." Oliver smirked.

"Character bribery will win you no brownie points, Mr. Queen." Felicity said before suddenly snapping to life, as if something just popped into her head. "Shit. Now we have to get the giant brownie."

"We'll order it but you're always full from dinner before we get to it."

"More for later, silly." Felicity replied before instantly falling back into her same routine from earlier. Noticing this, Oliver decided to address it.

"Are you alright?" Oliver asked.

"What?" Felicity asked, not hearing him. "Oh, yeah, great, just fine."

"Felicity."

"What? That wasn't super convincing?" Felicity asked, obviously kidding.

"Not particularly. Now talk or I'll start explaining the differences between martial arts styles through the comm tonight."

"Again? Wasn't I punished enough when you did that the last time?"

"That will teach you to eat my leftovers." Oliver smirked. "I had gotten that particular Chinese food just so it could be leftovers and you ate it!"

"Jesus, we already fight about stupid stuff like a married couple." Felicity realized, a sparkle in her eye.

"That a problem?"

"Not at all."

Oliver smiled at the thought that eventually they were going to be married. However, before Oliver could get all sappy about that, he was still trying to get to the bottom of Felicity's behavior.

"Now, you were going to tell me what's wrong with you." Oliver said, suddenly serious.

"Oh fine." Felicity replied, rolling her eyes at him before suddenly looking very guilty. "I may have lied to you earlier."

"What?"

"Well, you came and ate lunch in my office and then I said I had a meeting across town with a couple of web designers who are looking to make QC's website more accessible."

"Yes, I do remember that."

"Well, that's not entirely true." Felicity admitted. "You see, I did have a meeting but it wasn't about the webpage."

"Then what was it about?"

The answer that he received certainly wasn't the one he was expecting.

"My wedding dress."

"Excuse me?" Oliver said in shock.

"Secretly over the past few weeks, I've been meeting with Laurel and Lyla to go dress shopping."

"Well that's a surprise."

"Well, then you'll be more surprised to learn that Thea flew in today and went with us today before leaving town again." Felicity admitted, her face red with guilt. "She knew that the three of us were going and wanted in. She had a freeish day so she moved some meetings and flew out."

"Why didn't she come see me?"

"Because you weren't supposed to know she was here!" Felicity mumbled in frustration, a hunk of bread in her mouth. "Honestly, the only reason I told you was because I felt bad about the fact that I had lied to you in the first place."

"I can't lie to you either." Oliver said softly, squeezing her hand gently. "It was torture having that ring on me. But it was worse when I was sneaking out of the office to buy it."

"You know, if there's one thing I'm glad we have in common, this is it."

"Me too." Oliver replied with a wide grin. "When are we getting married? We've talked about so many other things but not that."

"I had an idea."

"When?"

"October 10th."

She had known to pick basically the most meaningful day she could think of. October 10th: In the year 2012, it was the day that he returned from the island and his quest to become The Arrow began. To think that it would also be the day the two of them were joined together, it was amazingly perfect.

Just like her. Obviously, he knew that she wasn't perfect. No one was but she was perfect for him, in all her imperfections. He just hoped that as time went on, he was the same for her.

"Done." Oliver grinned. "The only question is this year or next."

"This year." Felicity smiled. "To be honest, it's only the thought of making it that day that makes me want to wait."

"That and the fact that Mayor shouldn't really elope with his girlfriend at his own work location."

"Probably not." Felicity said before taking a sip of the wine in front of her. "So, October 10th, I'll tell Thea she can start planning."

"She's been planning for months." Oliver grinned.

"So much truth in that."

* * *

The next day, Oliver was in the middle of a meeting with the City Council when his phone went off. This would have been fine if it had been his normal phone. Unfortunately, it was not his normal phone.

It was the phone that Wayne had sent each member of the League. The phone they were to keep on them at all times in case of emergency. Looking down, Oliver was glad to see that it was just a text message.

_Meeting in Coast City in two hours. We need to talk._

This was one of the largest planning meetings of the year. Basically, each term, The Mayor and City Council sat down and hashed out what they wanted for each other. Typically, it happened around the end of February or early March to allow the Mayor time to settle in and figure out his own priorities with a couple of months job experience.

Oliver had already had to reschedule the meeting once when the governor came to town and couldn't afford to leave today. Annoyed, Oliver sent back a reply.

_What are we talking about?_

Wayne's reply: _Several items. That swarm of Kryptonian drones has moved closer to the edge of our solar system._ _  
_

_Can't come. Meetings with City Council all day. Keep me updated.  
_

This was also the second time that Oliver had failed to go to a Justice League meeting. The previous time, Kent had called a meeting in Metropolis. Apparently, he thought that Lex Luthor was moving massive amounts of that same Kryptonite material that Oliver and Bruce had caught him with last time. However, it was only a few weeks after the election and Oliver couldn't afford to leave the city for a few days at that point.

The response that he got was not one that he expected.

_We need an archer. I'm bringing Harper in._

Oliver wasn't particularly pleased with the tone that he was receiving in these texts messages. Not that he expected anything different.

_Where does that leave me? Are you kicking me out?_

Wayne's reply: _Keep the phone. We'll call you if we really need something. It'll be up to you to decide whether or not you want to come.  
_

Needless to say, that answer infuriated Oliver. It looked more self-restraint than he cared to admit to not hurl the phone out of the large window at the end of the conference room. Faking a smile, Oliver interrupted one of the junior City Council members at the other end of the table.

"My apologies, ladies and gentlemen," Oliver started. "I just looked up at the clock and realized we've been at it for nearly five hours. Let's take thirty minutes and be back here at 4 to finish up. Sound good?"

While they may not have liked the idea, all Oliver heard was the ring of "Yes, Mr. Mayor" before he stood and made his way back to his office with Pete and Myra on his tail.

"Pete, skip the rest of these meetings. I want you working on the City Address for the rest of the day. Regardless of when we're gone, you know what day of the week it is, you're out at 5."

"Yes, Mr. Mayor." Pete replied before turning back to head towards his office.

"Myra, I want that information on state-funded school renovation project that was mentioned in there. If we can get to work on that, I'll call the Governor tomorrow and get him in on it. Make it a big deal."

"Does that mean you're doing the rest of the meeting solo?"

"Leave your assistant. What's his name again?"

"Wallace." Myra said softly. "He's been my assistant since the beginning and you still don't know his name."

"You're lucky I know your name." Oliver joked before walking into his office. "Same thing to you I told Pete, right?"

"Out by five."

"Good." Oliver said, shutting and locking the door to his office before pulling out his phone and dialing Roy's number. Thankfully, his friend picked up on the second ring.

_"Oliver? How's it going?"_

"Things are fine." Oliver lied before huffing slightly. "Well, not really. Wayne called a meeting of The Justice League today. Unfortunately, I'm in planning meetings with City Council all day and can't get away. You're going to get a call in a few minutes from Wayne. Take it."

_"Why?"_

"He's going to ask you to go to the meeting and join the League in my place."

_"That's bullshit. You helped form the damn thing. Why would he kick you out?"_

"I imagine it's not just him." Oliver admitted. "I know that Diana was not particularly fond of my devotion to my city over the rest of the planet and Stewart doesn't like me for some reason either. If they got Clark or Dick to go along with them, it would be fairly easy to get rid of me."

_"Still, that's bull."_

"I'm just on reserve, Roy. If something really hits the fan, they'll still call me."

_"Good."_

"Now, when you get that call, you go to Coast City and go to the meeting. I am going to ask something of you though."

_"Anything."_

"You go to that meeting and then you email Felicity with every detail of it." Oliver asked darkly. He was okay not being in the League. However, he was not okay being left out in the dark.

_"You're asking me to spy on Bruce Wayne?"_

"I'm not really asking, Roy." Oliver said simply.

_"OK. If he kills me, it's on you."_

"The Batman doesn't kill. I distinctly remember that much."


	8. The End of an Era

Over the last week, Oliver's anger over the decision to remove him from The Justice League had bothered him less and less. Of course, it had taken breaking a couple of arms to do that.

 _"Did you really need to do that?"_ Felicity asked in his ear as he tied up another criminal for the evening.

"He had a knife." Oliver muttered softly, almost grinning. "He could have stabbed me."

_"So you threw him out of a second story window?"_

"It could have been worse." Oliver replied before standing and accessing his wrist computer. "How are Hood and Canary doing?"

_"Hood is working his way back to base and Canary is at the docks right now."_

"What's she doing at the docks?"

_"Apparently, someone accidentally set one of the warehouses on fire. She's using her crazy screaming power to put it out."_

_"It's called Canary Cry."_ Laurel muttered into the comm.

_"Whatever. FDSC says that they believe that the fire was started by someone smoking inside the building."_

"Nothing appears dirty about it, Canary?"

_"Oh, it's dirty. There's ash and soot everywhere but it seems pretty straight up. We'll obviously look into it afterwards but for now, it seems pretty open/shut."_

"Good." Oliver said as he came to a stop on the corner of a rooftop just off downtown. Looking out over the city, it was amazing to Oliver just how far the town had come. You could hardly tell that The Undertaking had ever happened and Slade's siege was a distant memory. There were still some scars from the war with Ra's al Ghul but most of those had been taken care of as well.

The only last memory was the memorial plaque on the front of SCPD HQ with the names of the police officers killed on the siege to end Ra's reign. Every time Oliver visited the police station, he would stop and take a moment there to remember Quentin for everything that he did. He hadn't always been supportive of Oliver but when he was, he did everything he possibly could to help the city.

Eventually, it cost him his life but his goal was accomplished and Oliver knew that's all Lance ever wanted.

Lost in his thoughts, Oliver almost didn't notice someone sneaking up behind him. However, the mystery person made the mistake of drawing his bow back just a little quickly, the bow creaking as it was drawn.

In a single second, Oliver flipped around and caught the arrow in front of him as it was fired before snapping it in half. Looking at his attacker, Oliver had to stop himself from jumping to conclusions.

Black robes, black mask. Bow and arrow. Giant sword on his side.

There had been rumors of The League over the past two years since Ra's' death. Oliver wasn't stupid. He knew that he wouldn't have destroyed the League forever. However, he did seriously weaken it. With both of Ra's' daughters in ARGUS custody, they were apparently being led by a man named David Cain.

Not quite as intimidating as Ra's al Ghul.

However, as Oliver looked at the man in front of him, his mind immediately jumped back to one of the Merlyn's. Thankfully, more rational thought took over. Malcolm Merlyn's body was still safely buried in Tommy's grave at Queen Mansion and Oliver had personally supervised the cremation of Tommy's body.

The Merlyns were dead and nothing was bringing them back. With that in mind, the more analytical part of Oliver's mind kicked into gear. The man was taller than either Merlyn but not as muscular, having a slightly round shape to him. He also wore both the sword and the bow, not typical for a member of the League.

This man was an admirer, someone who had idolized either Tommy or Malcom as The Dark Archer and certainly not a member of The League. Quickly, Oliver activated his voice distorter.

"Put the bow down and I won't have to hurt you."

"You couldn't hurt me if you wanted to, Green Arrow." the man replied, his voice smooth and practiced. The way he spoke gave Oliver the impression that man was performing. Either that or the man was a performer of some kind in real life and had simply started talking that way. "Your skills are simply not on par with that of Merlyn's."

"Merlyn?" Oliver asked in disbelief. "You really named yourself after him? Are you serious?"

Something that had changed over the years with his persona as The Green Arrow was how he interacted with criminals. In the past, Oliver was all business, a figure of rage and destruction. However, with the introduction of Felicity into her personal life, that had changed. While Oliver wouldn't consider The Green Arrow a comedian, he had discovered that taunting his opponents became a good way to disarm his enemies before a single shot was fired.

Internally, he took all of his opponents seriously. Failing to do that would guarantee his death one day or another. However, externally, he often made it seem as if he was mocking his enemies, not considering them a threat. Often, that angered his enemies and made them sloppy.

And easier to beat.

"I have become the dark angel of Starling City." the man said, the theatrical tone in his voice still there. "Just as Malcolm Merlyn saw how weak this city was, I have observed our city's weaknesses and I simply cannot sit back while our city falls into ruin."

"You do realize that this city hasn't been better in years?"

"It's a facade! That punk Oliver Queen is going to lead our city to ruin and he's going to do with you at his side!"

"Whatever you say." Oliver muttered softly. "You're really a bit of a nut, aren't you?"

"I don't care what you think I am, Green Arrow. I'm the best archer in the world, trained by the world's best! I never miss and I won't miss when I shoot you in the heart!"

 _"Can you just break this guy's arm so he shuts up?"_ Felicity suddenly mumbled into his comms, causing Oliver to have to fight back a grin.

"You missed just a couple of minutes ago. Remember? You fired and I caught it."

"Luck. You won't be so lucky a second time."

"I wouldn't count on it." Oliver said, suddenly retrieving his bow and extending it, ready to fire, as he rolled, managing to dodge two back to back shots that "Merlyn" had fired at him. Standing out of the roll, Oliver quickly caught two straight shots from the archer before getting in close.

As Oliver watched the man shoot, Oliver realized that he was an archer. He was fairly skilled at that because the shots that he was firing would have hit most people. Thankfully, Oliver was not most people. However, unlike this archer, Oliver was not simply an archer. He was an all-around fighter, someone who could take a fight in just about any situation.

This archer was not that. He could shoot an arrow but he wasn't a fighter and that was fairly apparent as Oliver got in close. The second he swung his own bow, striking the man in his leg, he instantly adopted a weak defensive stance. Oliver waited a second to see what the man was about to do. Finally, he realized something.

He wasn't going to do anything. This man wasn't a real threat. He was a man with a bow and arrow who thought he could take down The Green Arrow for whatever manic reasons he thought he needed to do that.

So, stepping forward, Oliver opted to end this quickly. A quick tap to the gut with the bow forced the man to bend over. When that happened, Oliver gripped his bow like a baseball bat, swinging directly upwards and crushing the man in the face. As "Merlyn" fell backwards, he quickly grabbed his bow and fired again.

This time, he was nowhere near close to hitting Oliver, his vision blurred by blood and pain. Lunging forward quickly, Oliver lifted his right leg and stepped down, driving his foot through the man's knee, causing it to snap in one motion. With this impersonator on the ground howling in pain, Oliver quickly stepped forward and punched the man in the face, knocking him unconscious.

 _"Thank you for that."_ Felicity said with Oliver forced to imagine her grin. _"He was obnoxious."_

"Why do you say that?"

_"He talked too much."_

The irony of that statement caused Oliver to laugh out loud, a rarity when dressed as The Green Arrow.

_"Whatever comment you have floating around in that empty head of yours can be kept to yourself."_

"I thought that would be better." Oliver said as he reached down, removing the man's mask. The reveal was not surprising. The man was in his early fifties with graying hair and a long pointy goatee. Removing his phone, Oliver took a picture and sent it to Felicity. "Facial recognition."

_"Arthur King, age 52, born and raised in Starling City. Currently works at the Starling Ritz Hotel and Casino as a stage performer specializing in trick shots and illusions."_

"So he's a magician? And he chose the name Merlyn?" Oliver joked. "This literally can't get any worse of a pun."

_"Just tie him up and come home. I've already called SCPD."_

"Sound good."

* * *

Twenty minutes later, Oliver was back in the ArrowCave. As he walked in, Oliver saw that Diggle had already returned and changed into his regular attire. Looking around, he didn't see Laurel anywhere.

"Laurel?" Oliver asked.

"Showers." Diggle replied simply.

"Sounds like a great idea." Oliver answered before going over to Felicity. "SCPD pick up the nut job?"

"Yeah, apparently he's been trying to tell them that he is going to be the one to end The Green Arrow."

"I hope not." Oliver smirked. "I don't think I could deal with that kind of embarrassment."

"Go take a shower." Felicity said, rolling her eyes.

"But I thought you liked it sweaty."

"Gah!" Felicity exclaimed as Oliver removed his jacket and hugged her wearing just the black T-shirt he wore under the jacket which was dripping in sweat. "Now I need a shower!"

"Sounds like a plan."

"Get out of here, Queen." she muttered before getting back to work on her computer. Chuckling to himself, Oliver went about removing the rest of his gear and put it in the case where it belonged. Taking time to enjoy the warmth of the water on his skin, Oliver simply stood in the water for almost a half hour before getting out and putting on sweatpants and another black T-shirt.

Walking back out into the main part of the Cave, Oliver noticed that the mood of the cave had shifted. Gone was the joking demeanor that Oliver had brought in seconds earlier.

If anything, it seemed somber.

"What did I miss?"

It was Diggle who replied.

"I just got a call from Lyla." Diggle said softly. "China White was killed in action while on a mission in Dubai."

That certainly had not been what Oliver had expected. But just like everyone else in the room, it hit him strangely. He had never liked her. She had caused problems in his city for years. But the knowledge that she was doing what she could for her kids had given him a strange respect for her.

Much like Diggle had Deadshot, Oliver had Chien Na Wei. Or did at least. Still, it was strange to have sympathy for a woman who had tried to murder you on multiple occasions. Maybe, it was the children he felt bad for. But they hadn't even known that she was alive.

All in all, it was a bad situation.

"I don't even know what to say."

"Join the club." Laurel replied. "I've been trying to put her away for years."

"You weren't the only one." Oliver added. "I was trying to put her in a hole before I even came back."

"Mission accomplished." Diggle joked.

"Not exactly how I imagined it happening." Oliver muttered before walking over to Felicity. "Do we have anything tonight?"

"Nope. We're all good to go home. I mean, they're going home. We're already home."

"Yeah, we got that." Oliver said softly.

Saying a brief goodbye to Diggle and Laurel, Oliver led Felicity up the stairs to their bedroom. When Oliver had returned to live at Queen Mansion, he had faced a dilemma. He really didn't want to sleep in the master bedroom and he didn't want to sleep in his old room. However, none of the other rooms in the house were set up as bedrooms.

So, Oliver changed that, working nearly four months to remodel his father's old office into his (and eventually Felicity's) new bedroom. It had been nice to be close to his father like that while also forming something new with Felicity. Now, both of the other rooms were guest rooms with Thea's room left untouched in case she ever returned home.

As Felicity laid down next to him, she cuddled up close, her head eventually resting on his chest like it usually did. Meanwhile, the fight had returned to his head with China White's death. More and more, Oliver felt the desire to get out or at least slowly back away. For years, he had been out on the rooftops of Starling City almost every night. Maybe, he could leave it to Diggle and Laurel and let them take over.

Or he could give Pike a way to contact him in case he was really truly needed.

Either way, he wanted a family with Felicity and with every passing day, he felt that The Green Arrow was preventing that from happening.

The last thought that Oliver remembered happening before exhaustion and the smell of Felicity's hair lulled him to sleep was this: I want to Oliver Queen, not The Green Arrow. I want to have a family.

I don't want to do this anymore.

* * *

The next night, Oliver dragged himself through the day and then down into the ArrowCave. As he walked down the stairs, he saw John and Laurel's vehicles entering through the secret subterranean entrance. Quickly, the pair of them got out of their vehicles and started to make their way to the locker room.

However, Oliver's voice stopped them.

"Guy, before we go out tonight, we need to talk."

Instantly, the pair of them stopped in their tracks, looking at Oliver in confusion. However, it was the look from Felicity, who had a fairly strong guess as to what he wanted to talk about, that nearly made Oliver forget the whole thing.

Because the look on her face was one of disappointment. He already knew how she felt. Without them, she wouldn't be able to help the city. Not in the way she does now. Oliver was well aware that if he went through with his plan, he was effectively ending the entire operation and Felicity's role with it.

"Sit down." Oliver said simply, pressing forward as he motioned to the table in front of him.

Doing as they were told, Felicity joined Diggle and Laurel as they sat at the table, facing their leader. Looking around the room, Oliver could tell that the other two were very confused because this was very out of character for Oliver.

But it was a conversation that needed to be had.

"I don't know how else to say this so I'll just come right out and said." Oliver started. "I'm fairly certain that my time as The Green Arrow is coming to an end."

If Oliver had been in a more chipper mood, he would have found the look on Diggle and Laurel's face hilarious. As it was, he knew the confusion that he was seeing was one of surprise and not something that was very humorous.

"I've been thinking about this for awhile." Oliver continued. "Ever since my conversation with China White in her penthouse. While we may work on the opposite side of the fence, we lead fairly similar lives. She faked her own death to save the lives of her children."

"She also tried to murder you more than a few times." Felicity reminded him sharply.

"I'm not saying that I like her but it just made me think. Plus, back at the debate, the answer I gave about the Green Arrow was how I truly feel. I do hope there's a day that Starling City doesn't need me and I think we're reaching it."

"Crime may be down but it's not gone." Laurel said softly.

"Is it ever really going to be gone? We're human and so crime will still happen. However, the big crimes, the ones with crime lords and international terrorists, those won't happen anymore. We've done a good job of rebuilding our city so that people like that can't take hold anymore. People earn their wages legally and don't have to resort to crime."

"Yes, but you accomplished that as The Green Arrow." Diggle countered.

"And I'll sustain it as Mayor Oliver Queen or philanthropist Oliver Queen or majority shareholder of Queen Consolidated Oliver Queen but not hooded hero Oliver Queen."

"You're really serious about this?" Diggle asked, leaning in closer to Oliver. "This, all of this," he said, motioning to the cave around him. "it's all you. Without you, none of this comes into being."

"And without you guys, I wouldn't have made it past Malcolm Merlyn, let alone any of the rest of them." Oliver replied with a smile.

"I just never thought I'd see the day you'd walk away." Diggle commented.

"You know what I see when I look at this place right now?" Oliver asked, standing and motioning to their surroundings before stopping at the medical table. "I see the end of The Green Arrow. For this city, they may mourn, they may cheer and honestly, I don't really care one way or another."

Softly, Oliver placed his hands on the table in front of him.

"But here? I'm not just the Green Arrow. I'm not just a hood and a bow just like the Black Canary isn't just a mask and staff." Oliver said, his voice barely above a whisper. "All I can imagine is the day that I got too slow to do it anymore. The day that my luck ran out. All my brain can come up with is the day that I lose."

Looking down, Oliver could imagine the scene: his body, flecks of gray starting to join his normal hair color, lay still on the table, bloody and still dressed in his gear for the evening. Diggle, Laurel, Thea, Roy...Felicity, they stand around the table, watching, waiting for him to get up but knowing that it's over, he's dead and he's never coming back.

"John, I honestly don't know how you ever come here." Oliver said with a sad smile. "You have a family. You have a wife and a son and yet you come here and risk your life every night for strangers."

"Someone has to do it." was Diggle's simple answer.

"I don't think they do anymore." Oliver admitted. "What's the threat? Who's out there that the police can't handle?"

The question hung in the room, no one answering as they considered what Oliver was saying. His voice rang out in the corners of the room, echoing back slightly making it sound as if he was talking over himself when he continued.

"This is not anything on you. You can choose to do whatever you want. But I've been back from the island for _years_ now and not a single day of that has been normal. Even now, the thought of trying to raise a single child while being The Green Arrow terrifies me. Because if the thought of leaving you all behind scares me, I can't even imagine the thought of having a child and knowing that it is a possibility that Felicity may have to explain to them why their father never came home. He just disappeared one night without a trace, never to be seen or heard from again."

This nightmare had hung over Oliver for months now but this was the first time that Oliver could remember actively recalling it during the day. He could see the image of his son. He looked like Oliver but he had Felicity's eyes and her brains. He was the smartest child Oliver had ever know.

And all Oliver could see what Felicity explaining to that smart child why he wasn't coming home.

"Are you certain that this is what you're going to do?" Diggle asked.

"No." Oliver admitted. "Felicity's said it to me a couple times and she very well could be right. This could be a phase, a passing thought and if I give it a month or two, it may be another fifteen years before I consider giving it up."

"But?" Laurel said, knowing that it was coming.

"But...I really could be nearing the end. I will admit that every time I leave the ArrowCave right now, I'm not ever entirely certain I'll come back."

The weight of those words hit home for the other three. Oliver saw as they realized just how close to the end he really could be. He knew that none of them would begrudge him finally wanting a normal life, especially now that he knew that he had found the woman he would spend the rest of his life with.

"I will admit that the thought has crossed my mind as well." Diggle said, entirely shocking the others. "Lyla is ready to be done with ARGUS. More than likely, she'll take some time off but then get back into something. She's already been looking at other positions, ones with less gunfire involved."

Looking at Diggle, Oliver could see how hard this was for him to admit. For as long as Diggle could remember, he'd been a warrior, fighting the good fight. Now, he was looking at a future that involved just been John Diggle, former military man.

The thought of it was daunting as it was freeing.

"I may like a bit of the same. It's getting harder and harder to hide my disappearances from Andy. He got my brother's brains and he puts them to good use. At this point, we've been able to use the fact that you're the Mayor to hide it but that's only going to last so long."

Wandering back to the other side of the table, Oliver took a seat next to Diggle.

"Can you imagine what it would be like if Lyla had to tell Andy that you weren't coming home?"

"Oliver, you really think I've made it this long and not thought of that?" Diggle said, his question almost mocking Oliver. "I think about it daily."

"Then why do you come back?"

That question was asked by Felicity, a look of slight horror on her face. Waiving her over, Felicity quickly approached Oliver, taking a seat in his lap and leaning back to be close to him. Felicity was like an aunt to Andy and Oliver knew that she was imaging the scene that Oliver had posed in her head on repeat.

"I come back because I should." Diggle said simply. "I know that if something bad happens to me, it would be difficult for Andy to understand right now. However, I know that I've done a good job raising my son and I know that I raised him to care about others. One day, Lyla would be able to explain what I really did to him and on that day, I trust that he would know that I made the right choice."

"You really think what we're doing is that important? More important that you are to your son?" Oliver questioned.

"I think that my son would realize that we were saving hundreds of sons for those that couldn't save their own."

While Oliver didn't share his optimism, he could certainly see his point. He was probably right. This was Oliver's selfishness manifesting itself in a different way. By focusing on his own potential child, he was failing to look at the hundreds of actual children he was saving by being The Green Arrow.

"OK." Oliver replied simply before standing. "I'm still not certain one way or the other for the long term but I am certain for tonight. Let's get to work."

As Oliver made his way to the lockers to change into his gear, one thought plagued Oliver.

He had given years of his life to protect thousands of other children. Why couldn't he get those years back to be with his potential children?

Why couldn't Oliver Queen be happy too?

* * *

Back when Oliver had been alone on his crusade, he had frequently ended up by his father's tombstone with little memory of how he'd gotten there. He had simply been lost inside his thoughts and his body had guided him to where he needed to be. Since Diggle and then Felicity had joined him, he had stopped doing that altogether.

A week after Team Arrow's conversation, Oliver had been out on patrols. The night had been quiet with him only stopping a few muggings and a store break-in. With Laurel and Diggle on their way back to Queen Mansion, Oliver had remained out on the city. But instead of actively patrolling, he reverted back to another habit he had had when it was just him.

He simply found a large building and stood on it, looking over the city before him. Back then, his heart had been full of anger and rage and the quietness that being that far above the city brought calmed him down.

So, when Oliver had finished his patrols, he had scaled Queen Tower, the tallest building in the city, and simply stared into the bright lights of the city below. Even at four in the morning, the city was busy with cab drivers and buses shuttling the late night workers around the city. Much like any other large city, there was always activity, even if the level was much less.

Suddenly, without conscious effort, Oliver found himself moving. Racing across the rooftops, he allowed his body to guide him, following it to its unknown destination.

 _"Are you coming back in soon?"_ Felicity asked softly in his ear.

"In a bit. Just sweeping the city one last time." Oliver said as he reached his bike, gunning it into motion.

_"Alright. Don't stay out too late."_

"I'll try." Oliver replied simply as his bike tore through the streets.

For nearly twenty minutes, Oliver just drove on autopilot. However, as he got closer to his destination, Oliver was surprised as to where he was going. Never would Oliver have consciously gone there but his mind obviously had other intentions.

Pulling into the Starling City graveyard, Oliver shut off the engine of his bike, the only sound around coming to a halt. Oliver relished the silence of the moment as he walked through the rows, looking for one in particular. He hadn't been here in months but he knew that he needed to tonight.

He needed to talk to her.

Within minutes, Oliver had traced the path that had been burned into his brain, the same path he took each time. Finally, he reached his destination. It was dark and the light closest to him was out but he didn't need it.

He had memorized the words

_Sara Lance_   
_December 25 1987-_ _May 5, 2015_   
_"It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time."_

At the bottom of the tombstone, was the Arabic version of her League name: Ta-er Al-Sahfer.

_The Canary._

Somehow, he knew that he needed to be here. If there was one person that would understand, it would be her. After all, she ran from The League and ran from her desire to be a hero anymore. For a time after Felicity left, Sara had basically quit being The Canary.

It was only after a conversation with Oliver when she realized just how much he still needed her. She had returned to the job the next night and never looked back.

Still, for nearly a month, she gave it up.

"You have no idea how much I wish you were here." Oliver said softly. "You would have known how to handle this."

Kneeling down, Oliver removed one of his gloves and placed his hand directly on the marble tombstone. Somehow, this made him feel that connection with her again.

"I just can't do it anymore. The fire isn't there, not like it used to be." Oliver said, rationalizing his thought process out loud. "In the beginning, it was all I was: a hood and bow. But now? Now, I can help this city in other ways. Safer ways. Ways that would allow me to have a family."

Suddenly, an image that Oliver hadn't thought of since Sara's death popped into his head.

"A week before you died, you asked me if I thought I would settle down. I told you that I wanted to but honestly, I never thought that would be the case. I figured that Ra's or Slade or any one of the number of threats that I've faced over the years would get me."

Smiling, Oliver turned and sat with his back leaning up against the stone behind him, allowing Sara to be his literal rock even in death.

"I've gotten lucky. But I know that can't last forever. The odds of me walking away from this are next to nothing and as I get older, they dwindle even further. Every day, I know that it's more work to stay in the shape that I'm in and to keep that edge. Eventually, it'll slip and there won't be anything I can do about it. Age catches up with everyone."

The words just kept flowing. Even before the island, Oliver had never been one to talk like this. After the island, he had become even worse, shutting everyone out in a bid to appear as though nothing bothered him. He was well aware of the fact that the facade fell short often but it was his only defense. If he let everyone in, he was opening himself to pain.

And he was opening them to pain, making them a target.

"Felicity and I are getting married." Oliver whispered, marveling at the thought of that coming true. "Honestly, the timing never seemed right. I assumed we would live our lives in love but never together. Just missing each other. Now, she's my responsibility. I have to protect her and be the kind of man that she needs. Be the kind of man that our _children_ need."

At the thought of his potential children, Oliver's mind flashed back to the dream again. Felicity kneels down and tells their son that his father is never coming home.

"I'm done." Oliver said out loud, finally making up his mind. "I'm done. When I return to the Cave, I'm putting my gear away and leaving."

"And I'm not coming back."

* * *

His time with Sara finished, Oliver returned to his bike and made the trek home. Looking down at this watch as he entered the Cave, he saw that it was already well after five in the morning. For her sake, Oliver hoped that Felicity had gone to bed without him.

He knew she would probably be upset but she had to work early that day. He wanted her to be rested.

Unfortunately, as Oliver unmounted from his bike, he saw that she had not gone to sleep. Instead, she was seated at her computer bay, her eyes burning a hole into Oliver's.

She was far, far beyond upset.

"What are you still doing up?" Oliver asked as he walked towards her, removing his jacket as he sat next to her.

"Waiting for my future husband to come home." Felicity whispered, her voice carrying an edge that Oliver rarely heard from her.

"You know where I went." It wasn't a question.

"Of course I do." Felicity said evenly. "Once I realized that you weren't on your way back, I got worried. So, I checked the tracer in your boot and the one on your wrist computer. Needless to say, I was shocked to find you in a graveyard in the middle of the night."

"You also know why I went." Again, not a question.

"I'm assuming you visited Sara." Felicity replied, not a shred of emotion in her voice. This was when Felicity was the most dangerous. Normally, her passion of life kept her civil. However, on the rarest of circumstances, she lost that passion and became exceedingly clinical.

Normally, Felicity was the ideal girlfriend. Supportive, understanding, loving. Oliver could count the number of times that she had done something that she felt the need to apologize for later.

All of them had come when she had entered that "clinical mode."

"I did." Oliver replied. "I needed to talk to her."

"Why?"

Slowly, Oliver stood and placed his bow in its place. Next, he hung up the jacket, leaving him in a black T-shirt and the leather pants. Finally, he removed the mask and put it next to the hood. Turning back to Felicity, he spoke softly.

"I'm done."

"You're done?" Felicity asked, repeating his statement as a question.

"I am." Oliver confirmed before returning to his seat next to her. "I just can't do it anymore. For you, for me, for the family we are going to start. I hope you understand."

"I don't." Felicity snapped, her eyes suddenly on fire. "You think that I'm okay with me being the reason you're walking away from this?"

"You're upset because I would rather have a life with you than the future that I know is going to happen."

"And what future is that?" Felicity challenged him.

"The future where you have to watch as I die!" Oliver shouted, her attitude finally getting under his skin. "The one were some gang-banger gets off a lucky shot and I drag myself back here only to bleed out! The one where my body finally gives out at the wrong time and I get killed as a result!"

Oliver considered stopping for a second but the control that he normally preached was gone. "There's the one where I keep going and every day, I get a little older and a little slower but I've been doing this for so long that I don't know how to give it up! On that day, I get beaten and they unmask me and reveal all of _our_ secrets to the world!"

"You honestly think that I haven't come to grips with any one of those scenarios?" Felicity shot back, standing to match him. "We've been doing this for _years_ , Oliver, and when I decided to love you, I knew that meant coming to grips with the fact that you might not come home one day! But that hasn't stopped me one bit."

"It stopped you for two years." Oliver snapped, immediately regretting the words that had just popped out of his mouth.

"How-you-" Felicity stuttered, simply at a loss. "I did that for you. I knew what you would do to save me and I knew what you would go through. I _never_ wanted you to have to make that choice again."

"Then why did you come back?"

Tears formed in Felicity's eyes as she answered.

"Because I couldn't bare another day apart of you." she admitted. "I hated myself for every minute of every day that I was gone. But I told myself it was for the best. Yes, you were hurting but you would be safe. You wouldn't have to make that choice."

"I'm a grown man. I make my own choices." Oliver growled, echoing the same thing that Felicity had told him a number of times over the years. "I would make that choice again every single day of my life."

"Which is why I left."

"So you get to make that choice but I don't? You get to take that choice away from me by running away but when I want to do the same thing for you, I'm not allowed? I'm not allowed to protect you from that possibility by quitting?"

"You're not quitting because you're protecting me from anything." Felicity shot back. "You're quitting because you're afraid."

"Yes, I'm afraid!" Oliver admitted for the first time in years. "I'm so afraid. I'm afraid of losing you. I'm afraid that I won't be able to be there for you. I'm afraid that one day, I will let my children down because I'll be too busy saving some faceless nobodies. I'm afraid that I will leave you alone with a family to raise. I'm afraid that if I don't walk away now, the only ways that I'll get out involve a body bag."

"So you're just afraid. Why can't you be afraid and be The Green Arrow?"

Taking a deep breath, Oliver explained.

"While you were gone, Diggle and I had a conversation once. During the course of that conversation, I told him that I had no interest in dying in the Foundry. His response was very simply: Then don't. Back then, I had no fear, none that physically affected me in any way. Thea was away, Laurel had left, you were gone. The only people that I talked to were Diggle, Roy and Sara. They would have been sad but they would have accepted me as another casualty of the war we fight."

"What changed?" Felicity asked.

"Everything. Roy and Thea are together and part of my family again. Laurel is back in Starling City permanently. You and I are _engaged._ So much is different that it's hard to imagine them being from the same lifetime, let alone the same decade. I want to enjoy that now, not be worried about whether or not I'm coming home on my bike or in a body bag."

Slowly, Oliver turned and started pacing, his hands on his head. He turned to speak with Felicity interrupted him.

"You lost your edge. We can accept that. So take some time away and then in a couple of months, you can come back. We'll have Diggle wear the Green Arrow garb in the meantime."

"You don't understand, Felicity." Oliver whispered. "I just can't do it anymore. That fear, it's permanent. I've been fighting it for months and it just keeps growing. I'm done living with that fear because it's only going to make me weaker and more likely that my worst fear would come true."

"So you're just giving in to it?" Felicity countered harshly. "You're quitting because you're afraid. That's funny, I never pegged you for a coward."

Like Oliver had moments earlier, he could see Felicity's reaction to those words instantly. The clinical version of Felicity was instantly banished and the regular version of Felicity returned.

But it was too late because the damage was already done. When she turned clinical, Felicity always spoke from some version of the truth. She may not have consciously meant it but somewhere deep in there, she thought that he was a coward.

"A coward." Oliver repeated foully, as if the words were an evil spell.

"Oliver, that's-"

"A coward would give his life for the people that he loves? A coward would give up the one thing that made his life worthwhile so that he didn't hurt those he loved? A coward would risk his life every night for seven years for total strangers? I don't think so."

"You have to-"

"I don't HAVE TO DO **ANYTHING!** " Oliver shouted, his voice ringing throughout the cave before he calmed himself down. "In your mind, a coward is someone who decides that after years of being devoted to an entire city, he would rather be devoted to the woman he loves."

"I'm so sorr-"

"Don't worry about finding a hotel." Oliver said simply as he turned and walked up the stairs. "This house is big enough. Just pick a room on the other side."

His rage fueling him, Oliver marched up the stairs, leaving his fiance in tears. Normally, he would have turned back and comforted her.

However, tonight was anything but a normal night.

* * *

Two weeks.

For two weeks, the pattern was the same. He would wake up earlier, walk to the other side of the house and peak in the door, watching the love of his life sleep. For two weeks, he had wanted to go in and wake her up so they could talk.

Then, the poisonous word would creep back into his mind and he would walk away, going about his business.

For two weeks, it went on like this. They didn't speak, they didn't see each other and neither of them made their way down into the ArrowCave. Both Diggle and Laurel had tried to get Oliver to change his mind but neither would be successful.

While he was certainly missing Felicity, the life that he currently led was a much happier one than the end of his reign as The Green Arrow. He was able to truly dive into his work and in only two weeks, the city had benefited from it greatly. There were several new programs designed to create new income for the city while also giving most of the proceeds to various charitable foundations who would then be able to create new jobs for those without them.

He had completed his first City Address which was a smashing success. Another was already being planned for the end of summer and Oliver's approval rating was the highest of a Mayor in the last thirty years. The city was on its way to real growth and no one had missed that The Green Arrow was now black and now used a pistol in addition to his bow.

However, after two weeks, he had to swallow his pride and talk to her. All these great additions to the city but he couldn't truly enjoy them as long as he and Felicity were still at odds. So, that night, he waited for her to get home and then marched across the house while she was still awake. Oliver crept along outside her room as he realized that she was sobbing.

Quickly, Oliver made his way into the room she had been staying in and sat next to her at the end of the bed, wrapping his arms around her. For minutes, she simply sobbed into his arms as he held her.

She was finally able to control herself and look up into his eyes, hers red with tears.

"Can we talk?" Oliver asked softly.

"I can't." Felicity mumbled as she looked at the clock. "I have to be back in the office by six tomorrow."

"After work tomorrow?" Oliver asked again, willing to delay a bit in return of a promise that they would talk.

"Sure." Felicity said as Oliver stood, kissing her on the forehead. "Good night and I'll talk to you in the morning."

* * *

The next morning, something changed about the pattern. Normally, Oliver knew what time Felicity would wake up so he could wake up earlier than her to watch her sleep. The previous night, she had said that she had to be in the office by six which meant that she would be awake at 5:00.

However, when Oliver walked to her room at 4:30 in the morning, she was already gone. This wasn't entirely out of the ordinary. Ray had a somewhat infuriating habit of changing her meeting schedules around at the last minute.

While he was sad, Oliver just assumed that was what had happened and went about his day.

For most of the day, it was fairly calm in the Mayor's office. A strategy meeting with his senior staff went well followed by a brief meeting with head of the City Council. Then, Oliver had been driven downtown to cut the ribbon on the new library that was being open in his mother's name.

Everything was normal up until just after lunch. At that point in the day, Oliver was scheduled to have a meeting with Laurel to discuss some of the cases on her desk. True to his word, Oliver was very against the death penalty and excessive punishments. He felt that Laurel was being exceedingly rough with some of her cases and Oliver was going to ask her to back down on some of the first time offenders.

The problem was that Laurel was now forty minutes late for that meeting. Standing up, Oliver opened his door.

"Mike, have we received anything from Laurel's office?"

"No, Mr. Mayor." his assistant replied softly. "Should I give them a call?"

"Do that." Oliver said, leaning against the doorframe while Mike made the call. After a brief conversation, Mike put the phone down and looked up at Oliver. "It appears that Ms. Lance didn't come in to work this morning."

"Weird." Oliver said softly. As he turned back into his office, he suddenly had an idea. Turning back, he spoke to Mike again. "Cancel all my meetings for the rest of the day."

"Sir?"

"I'm going to spend the rest of the day reading that proposal on restructuring the city's park system." Oliver explained. "I have to have that read by tomorrow. Reschedule any meeting for tomorrow."

"Yes, Mr. Mayor."

"Thank you." Oliver said as he turned back into his office, shutting the door behind him. Instantly, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, dialing Felicity's number.

She may have been mad at him but she always answered.

Except for this time as Oliver heard her voicemail for the first time in years. Ending the call, Oliver called Laurel next. If she was home sick, she would have her phone next to her at all times.

Again, he got voicemail. Suddenly worried, Oliver went to the door and opened it.

"Mike, can you get John Diggle sent up here?" Oliver asked.

"I actually just received a call about him from Cole." Mike said softly. "It seems that he didn't report for work this morning."

"Excuse me?" Oliver asked in shock, his concern level dialing up significantly.

"John just didn't report this morning. I was informed by Cole that he'll be removed from duty per regulations."

"I understand." Oliver said, doing his best not to look concerned before heading back into his office.

Again pulling out his phone, Oliver called Diggle. No answer. Next, he tried the second phone all three of them carried for Green Arrow related emergencies. No answer. Felicity's office. She was out of the office and they weren't sure where. Lyla's office. No answer. Lyla's cell phone. No answer.

Out of increasing concern, Oliver called Thea.

No answer.

Now panicking, Oliver called Roy.

No answer.

Something was very wrong. Grabbing some of the briefs from his desk, Oliver placed them in his briefcase and grabbed his coat before racing out of his office.

"Mike, push all of my meetings for the next couple of days." Oliver said quickly. "I just found out that my mother had a heart attack in Central City."

"Is she alright?" Mike asked in concern.

"We can only hope." Oliver said before racing out of the door. As he did, he rang his mother. Also no answer. Getting into the car that had been pulled around for them, Oliver instructed the driver to take him home.

Quickly.

The short drive felt like it took hours. The entire ride, Oliver sat and worried. What could possibly be going on that none of them would answer?

The driver finally pulled in front of Queen Mansion and Oliver barely let the car stop before he opened the door, racing inside the house, his destination certain. Dropping everything as he walked in the door, Oliver sprinted across the entrance hall to the back hallway and the portrait of his father.

Quickly, the computer scanned him and gave him access. As the door opened, Oliver sprinted down the stairs and to the computers that looked like they hadn't been touched since Felicity had been there two weeks earlier. Quickly, Oliver pulled up the tracing program.

Every known associate of Team Arrow had a tracker placed in their cellphone in case of emergency. In Oliver's mind, this certainly counted. As the program booted up, Oliver quickly activated all of the beacons.

"That's not possible." Oliver mumbled to himself as he looked at the information.

Every single tracer, including his own, was in the ArrowCave. Looking around, Oliver was very certain that he was alone. Instantly suspicious, Oliver removed his own phone and dialed Felicity's number again.

This time, the phone rang.

From inside the ArrowCave. Leaving the phone ring, Oliver sprinted across the room, tracing the sound to the locker where he normally stored his gear. Quickly opening the locker, he was horrified by what he saw.

Every single phone, pager or tablet owned by his family members. Someone had deliberately placed all of them there. How they did that, Oliver wasn't sure but it wasn't even the biggest question.

How did someone get the phones in the first place?

**"OLIVER QUEEN."**

That voice came out of the speakers in the main part of the Cave. Grabbing Slade's sword from his locker, Oliver slowly approached the main room, the blade ready in his hand.

**"YOU WILL NOT NEED THAT, OLIVER QUEEN. IT WILL SERVE YOU NO PURPOSE."**

"Who is that?" Oliver asked.

 **"THAT IS NOT INFORMATION YOU NEED TO KNOW."** the voice replied. **"YOU DO NEED TO RETURN TO THE COMPUTERS AND VIEW THE IMAGE ON THE SCREEN."**

Slowly, Oliver marched over to the computers, expecting the tracing program to still be up. Instead, something intensely different and more horrifying was there.

It was a video, live-streamed it seemed due to the time stamp in the corner, of a room. However, the room was not empty. There were eight chairs and each chair had a person with a bag over their head in it.

Suddenly, someone walked into the frame and removed the first bag.

Lyla.

Then, the second and third.

Moira and Roy.

The fourth, fifth and sixth.

Diggle, Thea and Andy.

The seventh.

Laurel.

Finally, they removed the last bag which revealed Felicity. Each of them was tied to the chair and obviously looked confused.

"What is this?" Oliver asked, a rage like he had never felt before burning in his veins.

**"YOUR FAMILY. IN 48 HOURS, LYLA DIGGLE WILL BE MURDERED. TWO DAYS LATER, MOIRA QUEEN AND SO ON. YOU CAN STOP THIS IN TWO WAYS. FIRST, RESIGN AS MAYOR OF STARLING CITY IMMEDIATELY. SECOND, FIND THEM. YOU HAVE TWO DAYS TO MAKE UP YOUR MIND, OLIVER QUEEN. IF YOU FAIL TO COMPLY, YOU WILL WATCH YOUR FAMILY DIE."**


	9. 10101010101010101011101010101011001010101010100101011

_**48 hours to deadline** _

For nearly three minutes, Oliver simply stood in front of the computers as they reset to their previous state.

Someone had taken his family. Someone had kidnapped every single person that he loved with the intent of killing them if he didn't resign as Mayor. Instantly, Oliver had to resist the urge to pick up the phone and call every newspaper in town, shouting to the heavens that he was done.

However, if this was something like what Oliver normally dealt with, he knew that wouldn't help. They weren't just going to return his family because he quit.

"This person isn't after The Green Arrow." Oliver said out loud. "They took Lyla and Andy and my mother. This isn't about The Green Arrow, this is about me."

Instantly, Oliver went through the list of people that would be on the top of people who hated him. Max Fuller was always on that list but he wasn't smart enough to come up with something like this. Maxwell Lord and Roman Sionis were both on that list but Oliver's past suspicion of them had turned into nothing.

"Who could this be?" Oliver said softly.

Finding his family was going to be easier said than done. The image of the room had left to distinctive traits and was windowless. A brief attempt to trace the signal proved fruitless. Oliver wasn't even sure if Felicity could have done it that simply.

_Felicity._

The last time they'd spoken had not been good. Oliver refused to let that be the last time he talked to his future wife. But how would he find her and the rest of them? He was no computer genius.

Video footage from the house would be saved on the server, Oliver realized. In his mind, he assumed that whoever had taken Felicity had done it last night. That meant getting into the house, not an easy task.

For nearly half an hour, Oliver attempted to access the files to no avail. It shouldn't have been a challenging task. Oliver had done it countless times before for a variety of reasons. However, the system that Oliver was looking at was drastically different from the normal one.

More than likely, Felicity had realized that she was being attacked and raced here. The computers appeared to be in some kind of safe mode. Unfortunately, it was a hacker's safe mode and not one that Oliver could easily access.

Without access to the computers, Oliver wouldn't be able to trace the incoming messages or look at the video footage from the linked security systems.

He was going to need help. But he couldn't just call anyone.

He needed the best. Any other time, Oliver wouldn't have even picked up the phone but this was not any time. This was the worst time and for that, he needed the worst. Reaching for his phone, Oliver dialed the number and waited.

Finally, on the fourth ring, he answered.

_"What is it, Queen?"_

"I need you to listen and not interrupt me." Oliver said simply. "Someone has kidnapped my family. I have two days to find them before they start murdering them one by one. I think that Felicity was able to protect our system before she was taken. The issue is that in order to find her, I need to access our security footage which is underneath her protection level."

_"What are you asking?"_

"I need you to come here and help me hack our way in Felicity's system. She would know that I would need back into the system. Given a few days, I could hack the system."

_"You don't have a few days."_

"Tell me something I don't know." Oliver shot back. "Honestly, you're the last person I would go to but I need your expertise on this."

 _"I'll be there in two hours."_ Wayne replied before adding,  _"We'll find them, Oliver."_

With two hours to spare, Oliver got to work. Once he got a good look at the coding in the system, it was going to be fairly simple to hack into. The issue is the amount of coding that Felicity had used. Basically, the hack would be simple but the length of time required to complete it would be not easy. In his head, he read that as Felicity knew that Oliver would be smart enough to figure out the hack and persistent enough to finish it.

Also, if someone else had tried to access their system, they would have time to catch them before they could even come close to finishing.

So, working as quickly as he could, Oliver began the hack. As he got into the system, he also realized that there was going to be a password protection level just before the safe mode could be broken.

Oliver didn't know that password and no amount of hacking would break that. But that was a problem he would deal with on at a later date. For now, Oliver worked tirelessly until a vehicle pulled up to the secret entrance of the ArrowCave. Oliver smirked to himself despite the situation as he cleared the vehicle.

Trust Wayne to figure out every back entrance into a place he had never been before.

As the vehicle parked, he was surprised with who got out of the driver's seat.

"Dick?" Oliver asked in confusion.

"You'll see in a minute." Dick replied as he walked around to the trunk before opening it and pulling out a wheelchair.

Standing in his spot, Oliver watched as Dick opened the wheelchair and set it next to the back seat door. Opening the door, he then reached in and picked up a very battered looking Bruce Wayne and set him into the chair before assuming a position behind him, wheeling him over to Oliver.

"What the fuck happened to you?" Oliver asked, unable to control himself.

"That's a story for another time." Wayne growled before looking at the computer. "How's it coming?"

"I'm 4% in on the outer hack."

"Inner hack is password protected?"

"You guessed that?"

"I did worked with Felicity for two years, Oliver." Wayne replied. "It seems like something she would do."

"Fair point." Oliver said before escorting Wayne over to his own terminal. "This is what we're looking at."

Wayne looked at the coding within the safe mode for about five minutes before turning back to Oliver.

"Your girl is smart. Simple hack but the length is going to be a problem. If you've been working at it for two hours and we've only gotten 4% of the way through, we're going to need some shortcuts."

"That's why you're here." Oliver replied before turning to Dick. "Do you do any of this?"

"That was never my area of expertise." Dick replied. "But I'll help in any way I can."

"Can you take patrols in Starling tonight? I can upload a map of the city with hot spots to one of our wrist computers."

"I didn't bring my gear."

"Do you know how to shoot a bow and arrow?"

"This man adopted me." Dick replied, pointing to Bruce. "If it doesn't have gun powder, I can use it to at least above average ability."

"Then you'll be The Green Arrow tonight."

* * *

_**42 hours to deadline** _

"Six hours down." Oliver muttered to himself as he looked at the giant clock, counting down at the far end of the room. In the four hours since Wayne had arrived, there had been very little talking. Only when Wayne was able to find a couple loopholes that would cut down system access time did either of them say anything.

Other than that, it had been silent with the exception of the sound of two men attacking their keyboards furiously.

Thirty minutes early, Dick had left to go out on patrols for the evening, leaving Bruce and Oliver alone for the evening. As they typed, curiosity finally got the better of Oliver.

"So why are you in a wheelchair?" Oliver asked, continuing to work.

"I thought I said that was for a different time." Wayne replied.

"What are the odds of you actually telling me at some other time?"

"About the same as the odds of me telling you now."

"Figured as much." Oliver replied before something popped into his head. "Does it have something to do with that prison break earlier this month?"

Two weeks earlier, an unidentified man had blown a hole into the side of Gotham City's supermax Arkham Prison. The facility held all of Wayne's worst offenders, specifically those with super powers. However, the worst of Wayne's list of enemies was a John Doe who had taken to call himself Joker. He had taken a particular interest in Batman and had orchestrated the mass murder of 150 people in order to draw him out.

Now he and two hundred of the worst criminals known to man were back out on the streets of Gotham.

There had been rumors that things had gone south with a couple of the former prisoners giving The Batman a run for his money. While he had still come out on top, the stories that were being told all ended with one trend.

Things were not going well in Gotham City.

"It started before that." Wayne replied. "When Dick had left Gotham to go to Bludhaven, I was angry at him for being reckless. I was angry at myself for forcing him out. So, I dove into my persona, shutting out almost everyone entirely."

"Sounds familiar." Oliver muttered.

"So I've heard." Wayne countered before continuing. "Finally, Alfred was able to make me realize that wasn't a good way of going about things. So, I invited Dick to join me as Nightwing and I even picked up a new protege."

"That Todd kid?"

"Yes, Jason." Wayne replied, his voice suddenly changing in tone. "He worked with me for a few months before I allowed him to go out on patrols with me. But he was different than Dick. He was darker and angrier. On his first night out, he nearly killed a mugger that he had stopped. That should have been my first hint that this wasn't going to go well."

"What happened?"

"Jason wanted to find his mother. Unlike Dick, he knew that his mother was alive and had given him up for adoption. So, I helped him look. Eventually, we found her. She was a doctor working in Ethiopia for Greenpeace. I was in the process of arranging for the two of them to meet with the breakout happened."

Oliver watched Wayne's face as a hardness suddenly came over it. He recognized that face. In Wayne's mind, he was reliving the darkest moments of this story before they could be told out loud.

It was a face he still wore often when talking about his time on the island.

"This man just blew up that wall and suddenly, they were all out on the streets. There was no rest to be had. For ten days, we patrolled 12 hours straight, often fighting more than one menace in a night. On the 11th day, I was able to get Jason on to a plane so that he could go visit his mother."

"Something happened." Oliver replied, knowing based on the look in his face that things didn't go well.

"When the Joker broke out, he fled the country. At the same time, Jason's mother was having...problems. Apparently, she gave Jason up for adoption because it was found out that she was performing illegal surgeries on teenagers in Gotham. She dropped Jason at an orphanage and fled the country."

"How do those to things relate?"

"Because when the people around her found out about it, they blackmailed her. They made her give them medical supplies so she stole from the company to pay for new ones. When the Joker showed up in Africa, he basically took over the black market sales there. Jason showed up and met his mother and revealed who he was in Gotham City."

"Why?" Oliver asked in confusion.

"I have no idea." Wayne answered with frustration. "He'd never met her before. I have to assume that he wanted her to know that he had become something. Anyway, when she found out that he was Robin, she went to the Joker and made a deal. The Joker got Jason and in exchange, she was off the hook for the medical supplies in the future. The next day, Robin's emergency beacon went off."

"Oh god."

"The Joker beat him to within an inch of his life with a crowbar." Wayne said, his eyes dark with pain. "Then, he blew him up."

At that, Oliver had nothing he could possibly say so Wayne continued.

"I carried his body back to Gotham and buried him at Wayne Manor. In the next few days, I was at my weakest with grief over Jason's death and exhaustion from fighting to many battles. When my lowest moment came,  _he_ was there."

"He?"

"I don't know his name." Wayne admitted. "He calls himself Bane. Born in the South American country of Santa Prisca, he was condemned to life in prison for a crime his father committed two years before he was born. As a lifetime inmate, he spent his time in the hole, a pit where the worst offenders were left to fend for themselves. Over the years, the nameless boy grew up to be a shadow, the king of the prison and a myth told by the other prisoners."

"Sounds terrifying."

"He is." Wayne admitted. "Naturally blessed with an athletic frame, Bane is also a genius. I've heard him speak at least three languages and he literally memorized The Art of War. But the worst part is that he was experimented on. Years ago, a sect of the League of Assassins was seeking to improve the Mirakuru serum and was testing it on inmates in the prison."

"And they tested it on Bane."

"Yes." Wayne confirmed. "Much like your former friend Slade Wilson, Bane was the first to survive. But this version of the Mirakuru, they called it VENOM, was highly addictive. If he even went several hours without a dose, he would succumb to awful withdrawal symptoms. So, a task was fashioned that sat on his back. At the press of a button, the VENOM is injected into his system."

"And this VENOM, it obviously made him strong?"

"Stronger than anything I've ever seen. He threw me through a concrete wall and broke all of ribs with a single punch. I've never taken a beating like I did that day."

"When was it?"

"A week ago. He beat me to within an inch of my life and then dragged me out into the middle of Gotham and performed the masterpiece to his art."

"And that was?"

"He broke my back over his knee in six places."

"Like broken broken?" Oliver asked in confusion.

"I'm working with Clark to see if there's some alien modifications that can be made. But as of yet, we haven't invented a way for me to walk again."

The Batman was gone. Of all the things that Oliver needed to hear today, this was not it. Oliver and Bruce did not get along, that much was certain. However, Oliver had a great deal of respect for Bruce Wayne and his skills. They were skills that were needed in the world.

"So who's wearing the cape and cowl in Gotham now?"

"No one." Wayne admitted. "I'll wear it again or no one will."

"A bit arrogant, aren't we?"

"Dick has proven himself to be his own man. I won't ask him to do it and I'm not getting some outsider to replace me. If Dick wants it, it's his but I think the city will be just as safe with Nightwing out there."

"You can only hope." Oliver asked before refocusing on the computer in front of him.

At least he would of if not for the red blur that raced past him, distracting him.

"Where's Felicity?" Barry asked, coming to a screeching halt.

"Barry, I need you to sit down." Oliver said calmly.

The look on Oliver's face told Barry everything he needed to know. Looking over at Wayne, he looked back at Oliver, a look of worry written all over his face.

"She called me when you were going to retire. She said that she said some pretty hurtful things that night and she wasn't sure that you were going to get over them."

"Barry, my entire family has been kidnapped." Oliver said solemnly. "This has nothing to do with The Green Arrow. Someone is going after Oliver Queen."

"I've spent all day trying to call her and she wouldn't pick up. That doesn't happen."

"The same thing happened to me." Oliver replied. "We're hacking into Felicity's system so that we can get access to the video footage here."

"So you can find out who took her?"

"Exactly."

Barry's face went from one of worry to one of confidence.

"How can I help?"

* * *

_**31 hours to deadline** _

Oliver stood just inside the entrance to City Hall with Barry and Pete, ready to do his part. Over the previous evening, Oliver and Barry had worked with Wayne to create evidence that his family had been taken. Obviously, he needed to not be at City Hall consistently right now but he needed a cover. He couldn't just say that his family was gone, he had to provide some level of proof.

So, using their considerable skills, they had faked a phone message from an anonymous kidnapper asking for a ransom demand. It was blatant lie and a forgery but considering The Green Arrow, The Flash and Batman were behind it, it was a good one and one that SCPD would never be able to catch.

"You ready?" Pete asked softly.

"As I'll ever be." Oliver mumbled before turning to Barry. "Do you have the speech?"

"Here you go, Oliver." Barry said, handing him the notes they had come up with on the way into town. "We're all here for you."

"Thanks, Barry." Oliver said before turning and walking out the door. Instantly, a blast of camera flashes hit Oliver in the face as he approached the podium. Quickly, Oliver raised his hands for silence so that he could talk.

"I will give an address but I will take no questions." Oliver informed then before he started reading from his notes. "As of 6:00PM yesterday, no one knows the current whereabouts of my immediate friends and family. That is my girlfriend and Queen Consolidated VP Felicity Smoak, my sister Queen Consolidated Keystone President Thea Queen and her boyfriend Roy Harper, District Attorney Laurel Lance, my mother Moira Queen and my good friend John Diggle, his wife Lyla and their son, Andy."

Tears streamed down his face as he spoke, publicly confirming the worst thing that had ever happened to Oliver. Watching Sara die had so hard as had watching Tommy die the first time but this was different on an entire level.

This was his entire family.

"At 8:00PM yesterday evening, I received an anonymous phone call from a man claiming that he had my family. No photos were sent to confirm. The kidnapper has requested forty million dollars with 48 hours or one of them will be murdered. Until this situation is resolved, I am formally turning the powers of the office of Mayor over to the City Council. They will coordinate with my senior staff to make sure that Starling City notices no difference between myself and the substitute Mayor."

Finally, Oliver looked into the cameras in front of him, knowing that whoever took his family would be watching.

"To the person responsible for this, I ask only that you keep your end of the bargain. I am blessed to have the resources you require. As long as you hold to your time table, you will get what you're looking for." Oliver said, barely masking the threat. "To the public of Starling City and anyone else watching, if you have any information on the potential whereabouts of my family, please call the number listed at the bottom of the screen. Thank you."

With that, Oliver's speech was done. Now, it was time to get back to work. Unfortunately, he did have to talk to one other person before he left.

"Frank." Oliver said as the Police Captain approached him. "If you need anything, please contact Pete. He will be able to answer any questions you have."

"Care to tell me why we aren't to contact you?" Pike asked suspiciously.

"I am going to be the process of trying to figure out how to liquidate forty million dollars in two days. That is a sizable amount of money and it's going to take some real magic in order to make sure that it's done. I've asked a few lawyers friends of mine to work with me at Queen Mansion for the next two days to ensure that we can get the money to the kidnappers in time."

"That's reasonable." Pike replied. "If the kidnappers contact you, make sure you let us know."

"Will do." Oliver replied before motioning Barry to follow him. "Come on, we've got work to do."

"Have you considered resigning?" Barry whispered as they made their way to Oliver's car.

"Of course I have." Oliver replied before stepping into the car. "But I honestly don't think that will help."

"Why not?"

"Because this isn't a political maneuver, this is personal." Oliver growled before gunning the engine.

The drive back to Queen Mansion was quick and painless as he was going the opposite direction as the rush hour traffic. As he approached, Oliver quickly avoided the extra security that was guarding the house and snuck in one of the back entrances to the ArrowCave. Pulling in, Oliver got out and approached Wayne.

"Where are we?"

"Felicity's programs seem to be fighting back slightly now." Wayne informed them. "It's not really undoing the work we've been doing, just making it harder as we go along."

"Great." Oliver replied. "How long are we looking at?"

"If we keep up a good rate, another seventeen hours or so."

"That puts us at fourteen hours to examine the video evidence, track down the leads and find them." Oliver said, staring at the clock that continued to taunt him. "Better get to work."

"Go to sleep first." Wayne barked. "With Barry working on this with me, we can afford for you to sleep a bit."

"You seriously expect me to sleep now? With my family out there? How the hell could you even suggest that?"

"Because of where I'm sitting." Wayne snapped back, pointing at the wheelchair below him. "I tried to fix everything all at one time. All it did was make me tired and weak. We aren't Barry, Oliver. We aren't Clark or Diana or any of them. We are just the very cream of the crop but we're still just human. Now, get some rest because when we do fight out who did this, there's going to be a fight. Are you going to be rested for it or are you going to find out where your family is only to get your ass kicked when you get there?"

"I have a feeling you don't listen to your own advice very often." Barry joked from across the room.

"He's not the only one." Oliver mumbled before nodding his head in agreement. "I'll lay down for a bit."

"We're working as fast we can. We'll get them back." Wayne said firmly.

"In what shape though?"

* * *

_**16 hours to deadline** _

After sleeping for a few hours, Oliver had awoken four hours earlier and joined Barry and Bruce in their effort. About two hours earlier, Wayne and Dick had gone to catch a nap, leaving Oliver and Barry alone to work.

"So no more hood, huh?" Barry asked softly.

Oliver had to smirk at that. Over the years, Barry had become second to only Diggle and Felicity in terms of friendship. The pair of them bounced ideas off of each other frequently and each year, they held a combined Flash/Arrow Christmas party for the two teams.

However, Oliver did have to force himself to remember that for as much as Barry was his own friend, he really was Felicity's best friend. Felicity and Thea had spent a lot of time together before she left but even then, they didn't connect on the level that Barry and Felicity did. So, in Barry's head, he was now dealing with the conflicting viewpoints of helping Oliver  _and_ Felicity when they had been at odds.

"What did she tell you?" Oliver asked, his eyes never leaving his workstation.

"Honestly, not much." Barry replied. "I think she just wanted to talk to someone about it."

"I understand that."

"So why now?"

"It was just time." Oliver answered simply. "I want to settle down and enjoy my life and I don't want to have to worry about getting shot at every night to do it."

"I get that. Did she tell you what she thought?"

"What do you mean? She obviously didn't like the idea. It's most of the reason why we fought."

"No, you fought because she felt guilty and a bit uncertain of the future." Barry explained quickly. "It was the first thing she told me when she called me last week. She feels guilty because she feels like you're giving up everything for her and she doesn't think she's worth it."

"We all know that's bullshit."

"We do." Barry agreed. "However, I think it's the uncertainty that really gets her. If you're not a part of this anymore, does she still help John and Laurel? She wants to but she felt like she was betraying you."

"She never said that to me." Oliver said, realizing that there was still plenty left unsaid between the two.

"I don't think she really realized it until after you two talked."

"I would have never told her to stop." Oliver admitted. "Hell, I may have helped her here. Knowing me, I wouldn't actually be able to completely step away. We could have been a team down here."

"You just never got to talk about it." Barry said, finishing Oliver's thought.

"Yeah." Oliver said before the system in front of him changed.

They were through the first layer of the programming.

"Two hours ahead of schedule." Barry commented. "I'll go wake Wayne and Grayson."

"Do that." Oliver said as the screen in front of him continued to shift. Now, Oliver could see the normal home screen of their operating system. However, it was covered by a translucent green page that simply had a space in the middle for a password.

The color green wasn't chosen on accident, Oliver realized.

"She meant for me to find this." Oliver whispered to himself. "She thinks that I can figure out the password."

As Oliver came to this realization, Barry returned, followed quickly by Wayne and Dick.

"Get out of the way." Wayne barked to Barry who quickly sidestepped the wheelchair coming through.

For several minutes, no one moved as Wayne worked silently. Finally, he looked up at Oliver.

"I've done everything I can but there's no way through this screen without the password." Wayne informed them. "Now, I was able to trick the system into forgetting your guess every time you enter one."

"So we can guess any number of times we want." Oliver reasoned.

"Exactly." Wayne replied before motioning to the computers in front of him. "That's the most that any of us can do, Queen. The rest of it is on you."

* * *

_**12 hours to deadline** _

Four hours of pounding in hundreds of password conversations had revealed absolutely nothing. At this point, Oliver would have been ready to give up on the whole thing if not for the fact that his family's lives depended on it.

"Take a break, Queen." Wayne muttered softly as he wheeled himself over to him.

Barry and Dick were out getting food for the four of them. Wayne had remained behind for some unknown reason as Oliver continued attempt after attempt at breaking into the system.

"I can't." Oliver growled. "If I don't come up with this password, then we're done.  _They're_ done."

"Have you considered resigning? That was the demand, wasn't it?"

"It was." Oliver confirmed as he leaned back in his chair, rubbing his eyes. "But answer me this. This happens in Gotham and they take Dick and Alfred. All they want from you is for you to walk away from Wayne Enterprises. Do you do it?"

"No." Wayne said simply before elaborating. "Criminals like this just want you to play the game. Either you play ball and you give up something or you don't and they kill your family. Either way, they win. Now, whoever this is knows that you are Green Arrow but doesn't care, they came after your entire family, not just the people that work with you."

"They want me to squirm."

"And you're going to." Wayne said. "You're going to want to race down to City Hall and tell everyone you're quitting. Don't."

"Why? At least then if something bad happens, I know that I did everything you could."

"Think about it this way: Say you resign and they give you your family back. You know them pretty well, I imagine. Are they going to be happy that you gave up the progress of an entire city for them? I know that if Dick was in their situation, he would want me to do everything I could to find him. But he would never want me to give in to do it. He would accept his death if he knew that Wayne Enterprises, a beacon of hope in the city, was still run by me."

Oliver hated to admit it but he knew that's how his family would react too. But Wayne's family didn't have a child in it that he knew. Things were going to come to a head soon and Oliver wasn't certain that he could sacrifice Andy in order to protect an entire city.

"You really quit?" Wayne asked suddenly.

"What?"

"I overheard Barry and Dick talking about it earlier. Barry said something about you quitting."

"I didn't quit. I retired." Oliver replied, defending himself. "I just couldn't do it anymore. You guys forget sometimes, I've been doing this longer than any of you have."

"We're aware." Wayne said simply. "What made you do it?"

"Why do you ask?" Oliver questioned him.

"Because I don't think that I could just walk away." Bruce admitted. "Looking at the point where I'm at now, I never may get to put the suit on again. But Gotham still needs someone, it's why I asked Dick to return to Gotham. My city still needs looking after."

"So does mine." Oliver countered. "I can just do it as the Mayor of the city now rather than a masked vigilante."

"I suppose." Wayne said, his mind obviously off somewhere else.

For whatever reason, talking with Wayne was keeping him calmer than he normally would have been. The relationship between him and Wayne was tense at the very best probably because of just how similar they were. Oliver knew that. They were both intelligent, skilled, stubborn and set in their ways and it ended up that when the two of them disagreed, the conversation resembled a bull in a china shop more than anything.

"Have you heard from Kent about some form of medicine for your back?"

"He thinks he can come up with something." Wayne replied hopefully. "However, it's just going to heal the worst of the damage. It will still be months before I would be able to walk again and even longer before I could go back to my nightly activities."

"It's a better timeline than never walking again." Oliver shot back.

"You are right on that account." Wayne muttered. "Basically, whatever we try is going to be experimental."

"You're okay with that? Whatever Clark comes up with could kill you."

"It can't be any worse than spending the rest of my life in this chair."

"Don't let Dick hear you saying that." Oliver warned him. "You know how protective he is over her."

 _Her_ was Barbara Gordon, the daughter of Gotham City Police Commissioner James Gordon and Dick's on and off girlfriend. Gordon was one of Bruce's reluctant allies. Unfortunately, Barbara had paid for that. During the Joker's initial reign of terror over Gotham about two years earlier, he had shot Barbara, leaving her paralyzed from the waist down.

From that day on, Dick was particularly prickly when people talked about wheelchairs, especially in a negative light.

"No kidding." Wayne replied.

"Alright, back to work." Oliver said, turning back to the computer. Almost instantly, he started pounding in new password ideas with no luck and with each one, his hope of finding his family seemed to diminish less and less.

* * *

_**6 hours to deadline** _

"Six hours left." Oliver growled before standing up and grabbing the chair he had spent the last several hours in. With one swing, the chair flew across the room, accompanied by a titanic roar.

All three of his allies remained but there was nothing they could do but watch. Oliver knew that. They were there for support. But they couldn't do anything.

The second the chair left his hand, Barry raced across the room and grabbed it, placing it back next to Oliver and getting right in his face.

"You have every right to be angry right now, Oliver." Barry said firmly. "But it's not going to help. This is a pressure the likes of which none of us have faced before but you can do it. This whole system was designed by Felicity."

"Yeah..."

"Who you know better than you know yourself." Barry reminded him. "You're thinking too much like yourself. Try and get inside that rambling head of hers. I'm sure something will come out of that."

Just like always, Oliver's very intelligent friends were right on the money, he realized. Thinking about this from Oliver's perspective wasn't going to work. Instead, Felicity would have picked something that was important to her.

But if he was really thinking from Felicity's perspective, it was also be important to him. Felicity loved Oliver but to her, the thought of the two of them together, fighting the odds as one, was more important.

"You're right." Oliver said as he grabbed the chair and sat, his mind instantly in thought.

What would be the one thing that would symbolize them together? The Green Arrow had been Oliver's first and the IT world was hers. While they had both adopted each other's world, it was still their own.

What could be something that was equally theirs?

Suddenly, it clicked and he was instantly transported back to a conversation that he and Felicity had had **.**

* * *

_**Nine Months after the death of Ra's al Ghul** _

"Do you want kids?"

The question instantly caught Oliver off guard. Felicity and Oliver were laying in bed in Felicity's apartment on a Saturday morning, one of their favorite traditions. Within the next month, the renovations to Queen Mansion would be complete and then they would be able to move in there.

For the time being, they were staying at Felicity's place just outside of downtown.

"Excuse me?" Oliver asked in shock.

"Do you want kids?" Felicity asked again. "I mean, I've seen you around Andy and you're really good with him but I wasn't certain if you'd want kids of your own with the whole "scary hood" thing and all. There's also the fact that your parents weren't exactly role models for how to be great parents. I mean, I never met your dad but you've said that he kinda slept around and then there's your mother and we all know how things work with her."

"Felicity, take a breath." Oliver said with a chuckle.

"OK." Felicity said softly. She was rambling because she was afraid of Oliver's answer. He knew that which is why he wasn't going to waste time with a long explanation.

"Of course I want to have kids." Oliver said, answering her question. "You ask me that before the island, you'd get a different answer. But now, I want that kind of life. The stability of it, having a life of my own, it sounds good, doesn't it?"

"It does." Felicity grinned.

"Why did you ask?" Oliver asked.

"Because I always wanted the opportunity to be not my parents. Don't get me wrong, I love my mother but she was not Mother of the Year either and don't get me started on my father. But I just assumed that with the way our lives worked now that you wouldn't want kids which is silly to jump to conclusions like that but it just seemed like the logical thing and-"

"Breath." Oliver ordered with a grin. When she did, he spoke once more. "Again."

"OK, I get it." Felicity said softly. "I just worry about that kind of stuff. I want that kind of life with you some day but if you didn't want it, that would really stink. I would give it up for you because you're worth it but it's not something I would have gotten over easy."

"Are you just trying to get me to have sex with you again?" Oliver said, obviously joking. Felicity caught on quickly and hit him with the pillow from under her head.

"I wouldn't have to ask you if you wanted kids." Felicity said, her voice dropping seductively as she rolled on top of him.

"No, no you wouldn't." Oliver replied before leaning up and kissing her. "But there is a reason you're asking."

"You know Jenny, my assistant?"

"How could I not? I visit your office for lunch every day."

"I know. Get a job by the way." Felicity joked before continuing on with her story. "Jenny's pregnant and her and her fiance already have a name picked out."

"What is it?"

"Hayley." Felicity said softly. "Isn't it such a pretty name?"

"It is." Oliver agreed.

"What names would you like for a baby?" Felicity asked suddenly.

Oliver knew that the whole of that entire conversation had led to that question. The energy that she put into asking it was something different. She didn't want to just throw it at him so she was very careful about how she set it up so they got there.

Oliver couldn't help but smile.

"Well, I don't want any family names." Oliver started.

"Not even Thea?"

"I don't even think my sister wants to be named Thea." Oliver joked.

"Fair enough." Felicity replied, nodding her head. "What other ideas?"

"Well, there was always the thought of naming her or him after one of his godparents."

"So, if it's us we're talking about here..."

"Felicity, we both know we're having this conversation." Oliver said, a laugh barely being held back. "Do you realize what this is like for me? When Laurel wanted to have this conversation, I enrolled in my fourth college to get away from it."

"Wow. That's devotion."

"It was nothing. I never attended a single class." Oliver joked before changing the subject back. "Yes, if it were us, I think the godparents would be John and Laurel."

"I would say that's right." Felicity agreed before adding. "Can we not name a girl Laurel? For several reasons."

"Yes, for all of the reasons that would have been mentioned Oliver joked."

"But we could name her Sara." Felicity suggested.

If Oliver didn't love Felicity Smoak already, this kind of thing would have cemented it in place.

"You wouldn't think it weird to name her after a woman that was on my list of conquests before you?"

"Oliver, if we eliminated the name of every woman you've ever had sex with, we would be left with about six names to choose from and none of them good."

"Ouch." Oliver replied, feigning injury.

"Hey, I just call it like I see it." Felicity said before kissing Oliver. "But really, I like the name and Sara was a good friend to me. She even pushed you towards me when she realized what she saw. Without her, we wouldn't be anything."

"True." Oliver agreed. "OK. So, Sara. What about boys names?"

"Not naming him Oliver?" Felicity joked.

"I think we'll name our daughter Meghan, what do you think?" Oliver countered.

"I think I'll find one of your arrows and stab you in a very mean place if you remind me of my middle name again."

"Fair enough." Oliver said. "No Oliver."

"What about John?"

"James?"

"Christopher?"

"Matthew?"

"Grant?"

"Stephen?"

"David?"

"Thomas?"

"Benjamin?"

"Brandon?"

"Paul?"

"Colton?"

"Connor?"

At the mention of the name Connor, both of their eyes lit up as if they'd won the lottery.

"I like Conner." Felicity repeated.

"So do I." Oliver concurred. "Connor Queen, rolls of the tongue doesn't it?"

"Yes, yes it does."

* * *

Brought back into the present day, Oliver quickly turned to the computer and typed.

_ConnorQueen- **DENIED**_

Undeterred, Oliver continued.

_Connor Queen-_ _**DENIED** _

Oliver tried several more iterations before something just popped into his head. Felicity, since the engagement, had started calling herself the Queen of the house. To counter, Oliver had told her that she was the second Queen and that he was the first.

Woudn't that make Connor the third?

_ConnorQueen3- **ACCEPTED**_

Instantly, the green tint disappeared and the system returned to normal with absolutely no time to spare.

"We're in!" Oliver shouted before turning back to work. "Now, it's time to make these people realize that they've fucked with the wrong person."


	10. Tick, Tock, Tick, Tick

_**12 hours to deadline** _

The moment they had access to the system, it was all hands on deck. Even Dick, who had basically been there for emotional support, was given another computer to access the Arrow system. Normally, Oliver would have been wary about just handing out access, even to Barry, but this wasn't the time. He knew that without the three of them, he wouldn't even be at this point yet so he obviously needed all the help he could get.

"Wayne, I want you to get to work on tracing the signal from the first broadcast."

"How do you suppose I go about doing that?" Wayne snapped back. "You said they took over your system. Do you really think they left traces in there?"

"At any time, our system is running updates on over 100,000 news sources around the nation while also simultaneously syncing with every government database known to man. It runs over 4 million processes a second. I'm willing to bet that when they busted into our system, those processes stopped and may have been replaced with other ones."

"I'll do my best." Wayne confirmed.

"Good." Oliver said before turning to Barry. "You're reviewing the footage at my mother's home, Roy and Thea's home and their base of operations and Laurel's home. I'll cover Diggle's home, here and ARGUS just in case Lyla was taken from there."

"You have your mother's home on your system?" Barry questioned. "I thought you hated your mother."

"It's complicated." Oliver said simply before turning back to his computer to start accessing security files. Once he accessed that system, Oliver breathed a sigh of relief. He had been worried that when they took over his system (really Felicity's system), they had deleted the video footage of them being in any of their homes.

Thankfully, that had not been the case. One year earlier, Diggle and Lyla had bought a new home on the outskirts of Starling City. It was only a few minutes from Queen Mansion and just a twenty minute drive to ARGUS HQ. When they had purchased the house, Felicity had personally led a team of QC analysts who had redone the house's security, which meant they had access to everything from the ArrowCave.

The moment Oliver had selected the video, he knew that watching his friend's family get abducted was going to be challenging.

He really had no idea though just how hard it would be. Oliver looked on in horror as a group of armed men silently stormed the outside of the house. Unlike most security systems, the systems that Team Arrow used had full audio. However, it was like watching a silent film. Not a single member of the twelve man team spoke a single word as they surrounded the house.

Quickly, one of the members worked to break into a security panel on the outside of the house as the rest of the team kept watch. Within minutes, the man had broken the panel open and hacked into the system. From there, the team infiltrated the house, three in the back, three in the front with four outside to keep watch.

With clockwork precision, they entered the house and wasted no time. Only one thought popped into Oliver's head as he watched the men move to their targets.

They knew exactly where they were going within the house. Now, the house's blueprints would have been public access but the level of understanding they had was impressive. They knew which steps to skip because they creaked and exactly which door belonged to John and Lyla and which one belonged to Andy.

Slowly, each door opened its respective door before raising their weapons and firing a single tranquilizer dart at their target. With their targets asleep, they broke radio silence and called in a van that had been waiting at the edge of the property. Once the van approached the house, they grabbed the entire Diggle family and carried them outside before throwing them in the back of the cargo van.

The very moment the three of them were inside, the van took off. Following a quick trace, Oliver lost track of the van as it left Starling City and unlike Felicity, he didn't have the abilities to hack into the national security archives to get other cities' security footage.

With the van gone, the remaining members of the team simply walked away, disappearing into the night. If you looked at the house, it was if they weren't even there.

A quick check of ARGUS' system showed no incident. Not surprising since Lyla had been at home when they had been taken.

Taking a deep breath, Oliver selected the video from Queen Mansion. The tactics were identical to the team that took the Diggles. However, they had one difference between their assault on the Diggles and here at Queen Mansion. The security system that Felicity hooked up at the Diggle home was impressive, exponential better than the standard system.

However, they wouldn't have been able to install a better system without tearing the house apart and the amount of work that would have been required would have been obviously strange for a simple house remodel. Plus, the amount of energy required to run that security system wouldn't have made sense for a house of that size.

Simply put, it would have caused someone to start asking questions and with their nightly activities, no one wanted that.

But the security system at Queen Mansion was a different monster altogether. Pressure sensitive windows, infrared laser grids in the hallways, timed guard patrols that rotated nightly: simply put, the place was a fortress. While working for ARGUS, Oliver had once broken into the headquarters of the Chinese Intelligence Agency. If given a choice between breaking into there or his own home: he would have chosen the Intelligence Agency.

Each person in the house carried a biometric scanner card. Basically, if you walked through an infrared laser but you carried that card with you, it wouldn't alert the system.

Assuming the facial recognition software matched your face with the card.

However, just like any security system, there were weak points. They had actually been intentional, allowing Oliver to break into his home if he absolutely needed to.

But as Oliver watched, he was shocked to see those weak points be used against him. First, the team of only four had sneaked in between the patrolling guards on the outside of the house, not a single one of them seen. Moving quickly and silently, one of the team short circuited part of the house from the outside.

That would give them 30 seconds to get inside before the generators turned back on.

They were inside a first floor window in 22.

Once they were inside, they still had to avoid the rotating guard. Moving quickly, the team of four hid in a closet as the guard passed before quickly stepping back out, heading up the stairs and racing across the second floor to the room that Felicity was staying in.

These people had been watching Oliver for at least two weeks, he realized. They knew that she wasn't staying with Oliver and they knew exactly which room she would be in. Just like before, they silently opened her door before firing a tranq dart at her. Curious, Oliver watched as they grabbed her and raced back to the weak window they had entered before.

But this time, they did something mildly unexpected. They intentionally stepped where an infrared laser ran across the balcony they stood on. However, they then turned and stood Felicity upright, facing the closest security system. Seeing Felicity there with her biometric card obviously on her, the system recognized her as a non-threat and shut off.

There were two problems with that. The first was that Oliver realized that they had never thought the facial recognition software to identify between sleeping and awake targets. That was something that would need fixed.

The second problem was that they were exploiting another one of the intentionally set up weak points. When a person was identified by the system, that shut the entire system off for a period of 30 seconds.

Just long enough for the group of four to gently drop Felicity out of the window before getting out and closing the window in 29 seconds. With Felicity in hand, they quickly raced back along the house and then sprinted in between several of the rotating guards.

The only reason Oliver could see them was the heat signature tracking on the security system. Without that, they would have simply been shadows on a cloudy night. They then placed Felicity on the back of one of the team members and scaled the fence before racing off into the distance.

"Holy shit." Barry muttered to himself at his own terminal.

"I'm assuming that yours is just as impressive as mine." Oliver growled, rage already started to build within him.

"Yeah," Barry said with concern. "These guys are the best of the best."

"If Waller was still in charge, I would have said ARGUS."

"They were unmarked though." Barry countered.

"Hadn't stopped her before." Oliver said softly. "Watch it again. We have to find something that are going to identify these guys."

* * *

_**4 hours to deadline** _

"EIGHT HOURS!" Oliver barked as he stood and upended the medical table nearest his position. "EIGHT FUCKING HOURS AND WE'VE FOUND EXACTLY NOTHING!"

Eight hours of watching their videos on repeat had turned up nothing. Nothing could be determined by their tactics, which Oliver didn't recognize. They were unable to identify any of the equipment they had used to break in and none of the gear they wore was something that Oliver or Barry could identify.

Meanwhile, Wayne had reached dead-end after dead-end in his attempt to trace the signal. Unfortunately, it appeared that the only way they were going to be able to do that was if they received another transmission.

They were scheduled for one in four hours and Lyla Diggle life was on the life.

And they had nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

"Oliver, this isn't helping!" Barry replied, literally racing over to him. "Oliver, I know you. I know how much you hate losing and I know how much you love your family. You've got focus on them."

"I am." Oliver roared although his volume had dropped off tremendously. "I'm focusing on the fact that I have four hours left until they kill someone that I love."

"Then keep working." Barry said calmly. "They aren't ghosts and they aren't robots. That means they're human. All humans make mistakes even if they don't realize it."

"Then why can't we find it?" Oliver challenged him. "You and Wayne are borderline geniuses and I'm one of the smartest people I know. We've given this information to Caitlin and Cisco, both of STAR Labs best and brightest. Between the five of us, we have exactly nothing. Not even a single theory on who these people are, who they work for and what they really want with my family."

Try as he might, Oliver could feel the depression sinking in around him. Oliver had lost plenty of times before. Yao Fei. Shado. He'd been beaten by Slade on the island. If not for that beam falling on him, Oliver probably would have died that day. But he lost Sara on that day as well.

He'd lost to Malcolm Merlyn when he had successfully leveled most of the Glades.

He'd nearly lost to Slade when he beat him half to death.

He'd lost to Ra's when he'd had Tommy murder Sara.

Losing was not a new thing to Oliver but this was different. This was his entire family. Every person that he cared dearly about was on the line and they had absolutely nothing to go on. Even when he'd failed the city during The Undertaking, he'd found something. Sure, he'd still failed but he had something.

Now, he had nothing.

"I don't know why we can't find them." Barry admitted. "But it's not going to stop us. We're going to keep looking and we're going to find them."

"Do you really believe that? Do you really think that if the group of us have been working for 44 hours straight that we're suddenly going to find something in the next four hours that's going to lead us directly to them in time to save Lyla?"

"I do." Barry replied.

"You're full of shit, Allen." Oliver snapped. "They're going to murder her. They're going to kill her right in front of her husband and her son. Her son! Do you realize that he is just over five years old? But he's going to see his mother die."

"You don't know that, Oliver. We could find something."

"Stop lying to me." Oliver growled.

"Well they certainly will die if we're standing here arguing and not working." Barry replied, scolding Oliver. "Guess what? You're right. I don't know that we're going to find them. But I know that I'm done having this conversation. If we don't exhaust every resource we have trying to find them, that's when we've really failed. Right now, time is our resource. We have just under four hours to find them. Are we going to use that time to stand here and fight and vent frustration or are we going to get to work and get closer to bringing your family home?"

As was normal, Barry was right. Oliver knew that he had a guilt complex, blaming himself for everything. He was frustrated, that much was sure. But he also knew that if they didn't work, Oliver would never forgive himself. Looking back, he would realize that he had wasted the one asset that he had: time. Wasting that would essentially be condemning his family to death, something he simply would not allow.

"Let's get back to work." Oliver said, his emotions finally in check.

"Good choice." Barry smiled before turning and walking back over to his terminal.

Slowly, Oliver approached his own terminal before hitting the play button to watch the Diggle family's abduction again.

"I'm going to get you back." Oliver growled to himself. "Come hell or high water, you're coming home."

* * *

Given 48 hours to find his family, Oliver and his new team had found exactly nothing. Looking up at the clock in the corner, Oliver watched as the seconds up until the deadline ticked away. They were down to just a few seconds now.

"Maybe they'll bluff." Wayne suggested. "It wouldn't be the first time something like that happened."

"These people went after the family of Oliver Queen, Mayor of Starling City and one of the richest men in the country. Do you really think they're going to try and bluff me?" Oliver said, his voice flat and emotionless. "They know that I'll find them eventually. They can't bluff."

"You don't know until it happens." Barry responded.

"I know." Oliver said before turning to Wayne. "Be ready to trace it when the transmission comes in."

"Will do." Wayne confirmed.

"Can you record it on your screen?" Oliver then asked Barry.

"I'll have it." Barry replied. "Why do you want a video of it?"

"Maybe we'll get some information from it. If we don't, then we delete it."

"OK."

In the seconds leading up to the transmission, Oliver absentmindedly continued to work. However, he knew that he had failed at least one person. The work he was doing was now for the second person, his own mother. He couldn't imagine what it was like to be his family right now. They had to know that time was getting close and that they still had heard nothing from Oliver.

Failure on this level was something new for Oliver. Never before had he failed so spectacularly. What made it so much worse was that it wasn't the lives of strangers on the line.

It was his own family, adopted or not. It was the people that he cared about most in the world. His sister, his mother: his only biological family left in the world. His best friend, his wife and their son, his own godson: the family that he'd hoped to create with Felicity one day.

Roy, his adopted little brother and his sister's boyfriend. Someone who he had seen grow up from a worthless punk to one of the most respectable young men he knew.

Felicity. There was so much he could say about her but it wasn't time. He knew they were saving her for last. She was going to be the nail in the coffin or directly to his chest as it were. He loved all of these people but it felt like Felicity was a part of him.

Without Felicity, there would be no Oliver Queen. Just the Hood, a killing machine, a monster with no remorse and no time for second chances.

Instead, she had given him a second chance to become a human being again and in turn, he became the hero that his city needed. Without her, he was nothing.

Suddenly, the clock in the corner rang its alarm as the screen in front of him went white before video appeared on the screen.

"Trace it. Record it." Oliver ordered softly.

The video on the screen was simple. It was a transmission of Lyla Diggle sitting alone in the same room that they had shown him two days earlier. If there was one bright spot to this, it was that Andy didn't appear to be in the room.

**"OLIVER QUEEN, YOU HAVE FAILED TO COMPLETE OUR DEMANDS IN THE TIMELINE."**

"Would you have stopped if I had resigned?" Oliver asked, fairly certain he knew the answer.

**"NO. THIS IS YOUR PUNISHMENT FOR YOUR ACTIONS. YOUR ROLE IN STARLING CITY POLITICS DOES NOT CONCERN US."**

"Who's us?"

**"THAT IS NOT OF YOUR CONCERN. YOU WILL BE GIVEN FIVE MINUTES TO SPEAK WITH YOUR FRIEND BEFORE YOUR PUNISHMENT IS CARRIED OUT."**

"Lyla, can you hear me?" Oliver shouted as if raising the volume of his voice would make her hear him.

 _"Yes,"_ she whispered softly.  _"I can hear you, Oliver."_

"Is Andy in the room?"

_"No, they took the rest of them out of the room."_

Despite the horror of the situation, Oliver breathed a sigh of relief. At least Andy wasn't going to see what was about to happen.

"Do you have any idea where you are?" Oliver asked.

_"When I woke up, I was on a plane. I couldn't see out the windows but I felt like we were on the plane for at least an hour."_

"OK." Oliver replied softly. "I'm so sorry, Lyla. We've gone through everything we have and we couldn't find anything."

 _"It's okay, Oliver. Keep working."_ she said softly, tears starting to fall.  _"Just promise me something."_

"Anything." Oliver said, determined to keep his promise.

 _"You die before you let them hurt my son."_ she replied, a determined look in her eye as she looked into the camera.

"Done." Oliver said firmly. "We will find them if it's the last thing I do."

_"They're going to need you. John and Andy, I mean. With John's brother and then me, I worry about what will happen to him. You've been there before and we've both seen it. Don't let him fall into that same place."_

"So that was you in Hong Kong?" Oliver said, shaking his head. "You've known who I was from the very beginning and you never said anything?"

_"I knew what you were coming back to Starling City to do. It's why Waller wanted you on that island instead of in Starling. So, I may or may not have leaked a distress beacon on the island about a year after they put you there. I may or may not have been the reason that John got hired on with you in the first place."_

"Why?" Oliver asked, amazed at the woman in front of him.

_"I loved him. I wanted him to find his brother's killer and I knew that you were a good person. I knew that you would realize what John was and you would become friends. For all of your differences, you're very similar. I knew you would take an interest and figure out who did it."_

"Lyla Diggle, you may be one of the most remarkable people I've ever met." Oliver said, tears of his own now falling. He knew that he was talking to a dead woman. Now, it was only a matter of when.

 _"I do aim to please."_ Lyla replied, a sad smile on her face.

Then, far too soon, that voice returned.

**"YOUR TIME HAS EXPIRED, OLIVER QUEEN. NOW, YOU WILL RECEIVE YOUR PUNISHMENT."**

"For what!?" Oliver shouted desperately.

**"ALL SHALL BE REVEALED IN DUE TIME."**

Slowly, one of the masked men from the abductions stepped into the frame, a silenced pistol in his hand. Looking at the pistol and then back at the camera, Lyla smiled.

_"Tell them I loved them."_

"I will."

Quickly, the man raised the pistol and without hesitation fired the pistol into the side of her head. The force of the blast knocked Lyla's body and the chair to the ground, blood flowing from the giant hole created by the bullet.

**"YOU HAVE FAILED ONCE, OLIVER QUEEN. YOU NOW HAVE 36 HOURS TO STOP US BEFORE YOUR MOTHER BECOMES THE LATEST IN YOUR LIST OF FAILURES AND MISTAKES."**

* * *

_**33 hours to deadline** _

1, 2, 3 miss.

1, 2, miss.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, miss.

For the last three hours, this had been Oliver. One attempt after another, Oliver failed to hit one of the six tennis balls. It wasn't the two weeks off as The Green Arrow that was preventing him from hitting his target.

It was rage.

A rage that Oliver had never felt before. Each fire of an arrow was an attempt to put the rage out. But he had no target. No face to use to calm him or ease his pain.

But nothing helped. Nothing could help and without Felicity there to calm him down, he risked becoming the wraith he had started out as when Waller had started training him.

If he didn't get his family back, he risked becoming the monster that Waller had turned him into.

Lyla Diggle had been something that Oliver hadn't even expected. For years, he had suspected that he had met Lyla towards the end of his time with ARGUS in Hong Kong. Thinking back, she had been an agent-in-training working directly with Senior Agent Amanda Waller. At the time, Waller was the second in command of ARGUS but the command leader of all Asian activities.

She had worked as an assistant for Waller during the last few weeks before Oliver had ended up back on the island. Since truly meeting Lyla, he knew that she had been promoted quickly through ARGUS due both to her working for Waller and her military records, which were nearly perfect.

Of course she had been the one responsible for getting him off the island. She had been present when he had told Maseo his true goal: to return home and save his city. Being a resident of Starling City, she must have realized that Oliver was the right person for the job.

But it had been her knowledge that John would be the perfect man to work with Oliver that just amazed him. She had known that after what he went through in Hong Kong, Oliver was likely to not trust anyone. However, she knew that there was one man whose morals were so impeachable that even Oliver would be able to trust him.

The fact that Lyla had basically orchestrated the beginnings of The Green Arrow seemed right. It had been ARGUS who had turned him into the monster that he was on the island. But it had been Lyla who had given that monster direction and guidance. For the last few years, Oliver had gone to Lyla for advice on several occasions.

He couldn't help but think that every time he went over there, that she knew just how much she had influenced him to become the man he was.

And she never said a word.

"Oliver."

Turning around, Oliver saw Barry approaching him slowly. He knew that without the element of surprise, he would never be able to hit Barry but Barry was still being careful. He couldn't blame him. Honestly, Oliver wasn't sure what he was going to do right now but sitting here was not very high on the list of things he wanted to do.

"Oliver." he whispered again. He obviously thought that Oliver wasn't present because he was approaching him like Oliver was ready to snap at any moment. Again, he couldn't really say that he blamed him.

"What is it?"

"Wayne is leaving."

"What!?" Oliver said in shock as he looked up to see Wayne and Dick packing up their things. "He's leaving?"

"It's something to do with that Kryptonian signal that he's been tracing." Barry replied. "He won't tell me what's going on."

"Yeah, he'll tell me." Oliver growled before pushing past Barry. As Oliver pushed through, Barry tried to grab him.

His mistake. As Barry grabbed his arm, Oliver turned on him, punching him directly in the face and knocking him to the floor. He knew that Barry thought he was helping but he wasn't going to be stopped. Not now.

He left Barry to consider his wounds on the ground as he marched towards Dick and Wayne. The second that Dick saw him approaching, he sought to get in his way, hands up to keep Oliver from breaking through.

Not a particularly smart move as Oliver simply swept the legs out from under him, pressing on to Wayne. When he reached Wayne, he grabbed him by the shirt and throw him up against the nearest wall, an arrow in hand and aiming at Wayne's left eye.

"Explain." Oliver barked.

"So you think that taking advantage of the guy in the wheelchair makes you a big tough guy?" Wayne mocked him.

In response, Oliver pulled him away from the wall before slamming him back into the wall again.

"I won't ask again."

"Or what you'll kill me?" Wayne challenged him. "Prove me right. Do it. I dare you."

"You think I won't?" Oliver roared. "You really are an arrogant piece of shit. I've killed people worse than you for less. Now, you will tell me why you intend to leave."

"And if I don't."

"Then they'll be holding a funeral for Bruce Wayne in Gotham City this time next week."

Looking at the arrow aimed at his eye, Wayne 's gaze leveled back to Oliver's eyes.

"Do it."

"Fair enough." Oliver said before rearing the arrow back and shoving it into his arm. Instantly, Wayne cried out in pain as Oliver left the arrow sticking out of his arm.

"Wayne, I really don't want to do this right now. I know it's not particularly productive and I'm shocked that Dick and Barry haven't stopped me yet. But maybe, they think that whatever you're doing is the wrong choice."

Looking over, Oliver saw Dick and Barry. Neither of them moved to stop him and although they didn't look comfortable, they certainly weren't stopping him.

"I would have to guess that I'm right on that." Oliver said, a rough smile coming to his face. "So, why do you think you're leaving?"

In between the growling and spitting and cursing, Oliver finally got the answer that he wanted.

"The Kryptonian signal keeps getting closer." Wayne said, grimacing from the arrow in his arm. "The signals have packed together in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It could be anything but I don't trust it."

"Why can't you check it from here? You connected our system to yours."

"Do you really think that I'm stupid enough to give you complete access to my system?" Wayne replied, laughing through the pain. "You got some case files and access to my information database. That's it."

It was amazing. This whole time, Oliver thought that Wayne had changed. Maybe it had been his own injury or the death of the second Robin. Either way, it seemed that he had changed.

Internally, Oliver was laughing at himself for thinking that Wayne could be any different than the arrogant monster he was. It was rare that Oliver was trusting of someone and even more rare when he gave someone a second chance after the way Wayne had treated him in the past.

"Grayson, get him out of here."

"I still have to remove the access from your system." Wayne protested.

"You're lucky you're getting out of here alive at all." Oliver replied. "Now move."

With that, Oliver simply dropped Wayne. Without the use of his legs, he dropped to the floor as Grayson raced over to pick him up. Within minutes, Nightwing and Batman were gone, leaving Barry and Oliver alone.

"You were a little rough with him."

"I was a little rough with you too." Oliver countered. "How's the jaw?"

"I heal fast." Barry answered. "You thought he had changed." It wasn't a question.

"I did." Oliver admitted. "He seemed different like the world had affected him. I thought he trusted us and actually cared about what happened to us. That was the whole point of The Justice League. We were supposed to be a team so that if something happened, we could call on each other for help."

"Yeah, because you're the master of calling for help." Barry replied sarcastically.

"I may not be great at asking for help but I know when to do it." Oliver answered. "I've asked you for help before."

"Begrudgingly."

"Yes, I don't like doing it. Are you happy?" Oliver said before continuing on. "Do we have anything? Have we been able to trace the signal?"

"Not yet. They encrypted the signal pretty well. However, I may have something else." Barry replied before pointing Oliver back to the computers. On his screen was the video footage of the Diggle abduction.

"We've spent hours looking at this. What's different now?"

"This." Barry said, pointing at the frozen image. The particular point where the video had been stopped lined up with the team calling the van in to collect the Diggle family.

"What about it?"

"Well, these guys are good." Barry said, starting his explanation as Oliver sat next to him. "Most of their gear is either custom or completely unrecognizable. I even had the computer scan the guns for serial numbers and found nothing. However, this was something that they messed up."

Barry was pointing at the radio in the man's hand.

"How so?"

"Well, most radios of this sort have an effective range of about two miles. However, this particular model is a slightly different breed. It's a satellite two-way. Rather than simply using radio ways to transmit your message, it is beamed up into a satellite receiver system in the atmosphere."

"I'm assuming this allows you to talk at a much larger range."

"So far, the testing has proven to allow people as far as 4,000 miles apart may speak to each other. The issue is that cell phone companies are very against this product. It could make their plans obsolete once they figure out how to access the internet with them."

"You're saying these could eventually become consumer products?"

"Years down the road, maybe. Now, they're hardly used at all. A single radio cost twenty grand and you need at least two. Plus, they don't come with any shortwave radio options so they can't be linked with a standard two-way radio set."

This was certainly something. Equipment of a rare nature like this meant less place to look and it would be easier to trace shipments and purchases.

"Who makes them?"

"This particular model is made by a company known as SkyLabs. They specialize in military assistance tech like radio, specialized vehicles and non-lethal weaponry."

Finally, they had a lead. It may have been small and it may lead to nowhere but Oliver need to know one way or another.

"Let's start looking into SkyLabs then."

"You got it."

* * *

_**28 hours to deadline** _

"Oh dear." Barry suddenly said next to him.

"What? Did you find something?"

"Sort of." Barry replied before turning his screen to him.

Five hours of searching had turned up next to nothing. The company was smart and held all order information on a dedicated hardware server within their Coast City, preventing Oliver from looking into specific orders of their equipment. For a company that worked directly with the military, this was not altogether surprising.

However, it did make things exceedingly frustrating. As a result, Barry and Oliver had been forced to attempt to look from the other side of the equation, the buyer. They knew that the team equaled at least thirty men. This allowed them to eliminate any small orders. However, there were still plenty of large orders to parse through and this meant attempting to track down each and every buyer to determine their motivation.

While Oliver had been looking into that, Barry had been looking into the company itself. Ironically, there was no listed owner on their website and even their CEO's bio was startlingly brief. This gave both Barry and Oliver a bad feeling and had been the reason they had started the search in the first place.

However, the name that Oliver saw on Barry's screen was not one that he expected to see.

**Maxwell Lord.**

He probably should have expected it but still it caught Oliver off guard.

"You're sure?"

"I'm sure." Barry confirmed. "It's worked through a maze of shell companies and holdings but it's there. He is the controlling owner in SkyLabs, provider of radios to mercenaries everywhere."

"Cute." Oliver replied.

"Seemed like something Felicity would have said."

"It would have come out with more innuendo."

"Yeah, I'm not doing that."

"And I thank you for that." Oliver replied as he thought. "If Lord provided the radios, he wouldn't have had to buy them."

"Sure he would have. If not, they would have just disappeared from his inventory. A company like this? Someone would notice that."

"Is there anyway to double check for sure?"

"There is." Barry replied before looking back at the case where his gear was held. "If you're willing to put that on again."

* * *

**_27 hours to deadline  
_ **

Oliver stopped his bike just outside of the back entrance of the largest warehouse owned by SkyLabs within Starling City. According to Barry's research, this was where the bulk of the radios were kept.

"Coast is clear." Oliver muttered into mic.

Suddenly, Oliver felt a rush of air and Barry zip next to him, staring at the back gate which remained closed.

"I thought you were going to have this taken care of when I got here." Barry said in confusion.

"Changed my mind." Oliver replied before withdrawing an arrow from his quiver and then attaching a new arrowhead on it. The function of this new arrowhead would allow Oliver to remotely control any electronic or computer systems. All he had to do was hit a spot on the device without destroying it and he would have complete control.

So, Oliver aimed and fired at the security panel on the side of the building and fired, causing the arrow to stick just barely into the front panel. This gave him access without damaging any of the circuits.

Looking down, Oliver accessed his wrist computer.

"Security system is offline." Oliver muttered, mostly to him." And this door is now open."

Sure enough, the door in front of them rose automatically. Within seconds, they were inside and moving towards the inventory computer which would be their easiest way in determining if those radios did in fact come from this location.

The warehouse was massive with pallets of supplies wrapped tight and ready for shipment at any time. It made it a tough location to scout out. Not only were the pathways in between the pallets small but it prevented Oliver from looking up and seeing if there were any guards on the catwalks above them.

Thankfully, it was very dark within the warehouse itself and that gave them cover to move without being seen.

Unfortunately, that only really worked over long distances. They were almost at the computer when a guard stepped out from behind one of the pallet walls. He turned to go walk down the path that Oliver and Barry walked when he realized he was face to face with The Green Arrow and The Flash.

"Shit." he muttered before reaching for his gun.

Fortunately for Oliver, he was accompanied by the fastest man in the world. Before he could even think about moving, Barry had zipped over to the guard and removed any weapons he had on him. Once that was done, he spun the man towards Oliver who grabbed him by the shirt, lifting him in one swift motion and pressing him against the nearest pallet.

At the same time, Oliver reached across his chest and activated his voice distorter.

"What's your name?" Oliver growled.

"Andrew." the guard sputtered. "Andrew Flair."

"Andrew, The Flash and I are here are some very special business and we really cannot be interrupted." Oliver said, his voice barely above a menacing whisper. "I need a distraction. Do you think that you can come up with something for us?"

"Y-y-yea, I t-t-think s-s-so."

"Don't think, Andrew." Oliver countered. "I need to know if I can trust you. Because if you leave and then a team of security guards finds us, I'm going to know it was you."

"Yes, I c-c-can help." he muttered with absolutely no confidence before grabbing his own radio, an exact replica of the ones that the men who had taken his family had used. "I h-have a Code Black in the front loading area. Suspicious vehicle parked out there. I need all available officers to make their way there."

"Nicely done, Andrew." Oliver said before lowering the guard to the ground. "Now get out of here."

"Y-y-yes sir." Andrew stuttered before racing off in the direction of the front loading area. Turning around, Oliver marched passed Barry who turned and walked with him.

"You were pretty nice to him."

"He's not the bad guy here." Oliver said simply as they reached the computer. "Do you have him on your line?"

"Vibe." Barry said, using Cisco's callsign to contact him. "We're at the computer. Tell us what to do."

_"Well, that flash drive that I gave you is basically a slave drive. It fills in any passwords and allows me to remotely access their system from here."_

"So we just put that into the computer?"

 _"Yeah, that should be it."_ Cisco replied simply.

Following Cisco's instructions, Oliver inserted the flash drive into the lowest USB port. Only a few moments later, the computer was running remotely, the cursor flying across the screen as if it were being controlled by a ghost. While Cisco searched for the information they were looking for, Oliver and Barry kept an eye out for any stray guards.

"How are you doing?" Oliver asked as he scanned the room.

Turning, Barry looked at Oliver in confusion.

"Why are you even asking?"

"Because the last time I saw you, you were vibrating through chairs." Oliver said as he turned to Barry. "And you hadn't told Iris about it. I let it be then but I know that something's up about that."

"We're just struggling a bit." Barry admitted. "She saw a picture of me from the day before I left for Starling."

"The very first time? When Cyrus Gold broke into Applied Sciences."

"Yeah." Barry admitted. "She found the picture and I don't like any different."

"Well it hasn't been that long since then."

"Over five years, GA." Barry countered. "I was in my mid twenties. Now, I'm just a hair over thirty. You end up looking at least a bit different in that time. Hell, you look just a little different than you did when I met you."

Barry was right on that account, although Oliver honestly thought that a lot of that had to do with stress and injuries.

"She thinks you've stopped aging." Oliver observed.

"She's not wrong." Barry admitted. "I think I've aged about a year instead of one. It's my metabolism. It keeps me healthier than most."

"She's worried that she's going to age and you're going to stay the same."

"It freaked her out when she realized it." Barry said sadly. "She left about a month ago."

"A month!" Oliver exclaimed. "When the hell were you going to tell me?"

"Caitlin and Cisco don't even know. I don't know what to do, Oliver. Is this the curse for having this power? I'm either going to be ignored by those who love me or watch them die."

"She'll come back, Flash." Oliver said softly, placing a hand on Barry's shoulder. "You've been through more before this. It will just take her some time to get used to the idea. But she'll realize that she loves you and that's what matters."

"And if she doesn't?"

"Then you aren't alone out there. We're all here for you." Oliver replied with a smile.

"Thanks, man." Barry answered before Cisco spoke up.

 _"You guys definitely have the right place."_ Cisco said as the pair of them went back to the computer.  _"This file here is a theft report. A shipment of fifty radios just up and disappeared. Then, about two weeks later, Lord approved a reconciliation."_

"What's that?" Oliver asked.

"Basically, he's admitting they're gone and that the company is just going to take a loss on them."

"Why would he do it that way rather than just having a third party order them?"

_"Because he couldn't have had Sionis do it if they're connected. We would have found that too quickly. Plus, he can't out whoever it is that is his mystery backer and he certainly can't pay for them himself without someone asking questions."_

"Make sense." Oliver replied before speaking to Cisco again. "When did the theft occur?"

"December 29th of last year." Barry pointed out as he looked at the report in front of him.

"Days after I fired Sionis." Oliver observed. "That doesn't really seem like a coincidence."

"Still too weak of a connection." Barry argued. "We need real proof."

"Vibe, get me the video and audio surveillance from the days before and after the theft. We're going to look through that and find any suspicious activity and then trace it."

_"Sounds like a plan."_

* * *

_**24 hours to deadline** _

With the information that Lord did in fact have something to do with the theft of the radios, Oliver and Barry returned to the ArrowCave. The moment that Oliver pulled in, Barry zoomed over to the computer, instantly working on something.

"What are you doing?" Oliver asked as he removed his mask and pulled back his hood.

"Working on a hunch." Barry said quickly as his hands moved faster than Oliver could keep track of. Seconds later, he turned back to Oliver. "Lord's bank account is absent activity on that day as well."

"Why would his bank account have something to do with it?"

"Well, we can assume that he was involved in the theft of the product. However, we know that he couldn't have done it himself. I'm sure that when Cisco gets us that video footage, it's going to involve more of the same mercenaries that took your family."

"I'm failing to see the connection as to why this will help."

"Likely, this was a separate job from the actual abduction of the family. They couldn't approve the abduction without this particular set of equipment. If for whatever reason they had failed to get it, they wouldn't have been paid the full amount."

"So you're saying two separate transactions? One for the theft of the gear and another for the actual abduction."

"Exactly. However, I've checked both Lord and Sionis' accounts and neither have any activity on either date."

"But what does that mean? I mean we have a fairly strong connection to Lord but nothing really links to Sionis at all."

"Then we keep looking." Barry said simply before turning back to his computer. "Keep scanning Lord's records. It's going to be a bit before Cisco can consolidate all of that video footage and have it in the system."

Sitting down, Oliver lifted his hands to access his computer when a thought crossed his mind.

"What if we've been looking at this the wrong way?"

"What do you mean?"

"I've been assuming that whoever was providing the funds was simply a bank account." Oliver answered. "However, it seems odd that these two would work together on such a quick schedule after me crossing them."

"Crossing them?"

"I beat Lord in the election and then fired Sionis. Within weeks, the structure of this plan to take my family was already in motion. As far as I know, neither of them know that Oliver Queen and The Green Arrow are the same person."

"You're suggesting that the money and the mastermind are the same people."

"And that whoever has the money is recruiting people that have a score to settle with me to help him."

"Then the real question is: Who has that kind of money and a reason to be angry at Oliver Queen?"

"And knows that Oliver Queen is the Green Arrow." Oliver added. "Right now, your guess is as good as mine."


	11. A Family Tradition

**12 hours to deadline**

When Oliver and Barry had gotten the video footage from Cisco, they had figured that they would be able to isolate the footage of the radio theft relatively quickly. Maybe within an hour or two.

They were very, very wrong.

First, the warehouse at SkyLabs was one of the largest in the western United States with a size of 48,000 square feet. Secondly, none of the three of them were masters of warehouse organization and even with a spreadsheet that supposedly told them where everything was at, they were left looking at things that weren't the radios they were after for hours on end.

Barry even watched most of the footage at 40x the normal speed and they still hadn't found the source of the theft yet.

It had been twelve straight hours of watching nothing but warehouse footage when Oliver finally spotted something he had found suspicious. The bonus of watching all those hours of footage was that both Oliver and Barry had gotten a feel for the routine of the building.

So when Oliver saw a guard that obviously was where he shouldn't have been, he took notice.

"Barry," Oliver said, calling the scarlet speedster over to him. "look at this."

"What?"

"That." Oliver replied, pointing at the guard on the screen. "What is that guy doing there? His rotation is on the far side of the building."

"And he happens to be in that area just in between a forklift operator and another guard."

"Seems a little strange, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, it does." Barry added as they continued to watch. "What's he doing?"

"Let's watch."

They watched as the out of place guard set something on top of one of the pallets and then walked away, pointedly not looking back at the object that he had just dropped.

"It's a marker." Barry observed.

"What do you want to bet that pallet is full of those radios?"

"I'll bet my stake in QC." Barry replied as he checked the spreadsheet that told them where everything in the warehouse was located.

"You own stock in QC?"

"Felicity gave me .002% of the company for my birthday a couple years ago." Barry said softly before looking up from the spreadsheet. "If I'm reading this right, and I'm pretty sure I am, those boxes are full of model number X7-346482."

"The satellite radio communicators." Oliver said softly before fast forwarding through the rest of the work day.

As they reached the end of the work day, the process worked itself out much in the same way that it had before. All of the guards on the floor made their way to a room in the back where they disappeared until they came back the next morning. A quick check of the building blueprints marked that as the only other room in the building to which the guards had access. It also had a door to the outside that they entered and exited from.

Once they started to file out of the main floor room, another smaller group of night guards would flow out and start their regularly assigned patrols of the building.

However, on this night, something was different.

"Barry, do you recognize a single one of these guards?"

"Not one." Barry confirmed. "An entirely new group?"

"Must be Lord's crew." Oliver said. Within seconds, this group broke from the typical pattern, quickly racing over to the GPS marker. As they did that, a vehicle pulled up to the same door that Oliver and Barry had gone through on their visit. As they walked towards pallet, something strange happened.

A skip in the video. Within seconds, every member of the team was back on their regularly assigned patrols as if nothing had happened.

"Play that back." Oliver ordered as Barry backed the video up only for it to happen again.

The timestamp in the bottom right continued on without skipping a beat and the van that was there one moment mysteriously disappeared.

"Someone's tampered with this." Oliver realized quickly. "Why would they leave the one second of everything changing? They could have just cut it out entirely if they were able to doctor the timestamp."

"Whoever did it, and we can assume it's Lord, wants you to find it." Barry reasoned. "How many times have we seen it? Most of the time, it's arrogance that does most of us in."

"Yeah." Oliver agreed. "We need to trace that van."

"We can't." Barry countered. "I've been trying to get into the city's security network for the last two days with no success. SCPD Cyber Crimes has been watching it carefully. It takes someone of Felicity's skill level to get in and out without being noticed."

Oliver knew this. Over the years, SCPD had opened a Cyber Crimes Division that went unchallenged. It was undoubtedly the best of its kind in the country. This was largely due to a lot of the assistance that Felicity and the Applied Sciences Department of QC had given them. Unfortunately, that had made it necessary for Felicity to literally hack the city security network each time they needed to use it. Gone were the days where they were just able to have an active link in it. Instead, valuable time had been wasted each night as Felicity established her presence in the network and then started putting out Red Herrings so that if Cyber Crimes got word of her presence in the system, they would have multiple targets to chase after.

Trust Felicity to think of everything including how to dodge the system that she had helped create.

"We'll have to risk it." Oliver countered. "We don't have much choice at this point. We know that van had something to do with the theft of those radios."

"Oliver, if we get caught..." Barry replied, the implication of them tracking the signal to there floating in the air.

Felicity wasn't an MIT grad at 19 for no reason. When they had moved their headquarters to below Queen Mansion, Felicity had anticipated someone tracing their signal back there. Therefore, before their signal reached any one of them in the field, it went through Queen Consolidated's mainframe where it bounced between every server in their system before being sent out into the field.

Unfortunately, this caused a bit of a delay in their signal but such was the price of operating the way they had.

Especially Felicity was able to decrease that delay to less than a tenth of a second.

Such was the bonus of having a certified genius for a partner and girlfriend.

Tracing their signal would be challenging. Not only would you have to bounce through all of the Queen Consolidated servers but you would have to be willing to hack into their system externally once you got there. Obviously, someone had taken the time to do it and gotten into their system twice now.

However, Oliver banked on the Cyber Crimes division on being slightly slower than whoever it was that was trying to take him down.

"Do it." Oliver ordered firmly. "If they track us, you get out of here."

"I'm not going to leave you to do this alone." Barry countered.

"I won't be doing it at all if we get caught, Barry."

The truth in that statement obviously hit Barry funny as he gave Oliver a strange look before turning back to the computer to get started on entering the city's security network.

After Barry had been working for a few minutes, Oliver had a sudden thought.

"Barry, you've been here for awhile. How has Central City not needed you once during this time?"

Sheepishly, Barry looked over at Oliver and replied.

"I got Ronnie and Diana to trade covering for me while I was gone."

"Diana? I thought she was spending her time in Metropolis with Clark."

"They've had a bit of a falling out." Barry replied. "Obviously, you would have no way of knowing that. You weren't at the last meeting."

"Yeah, I wasn't." Oliver shot back darkly. "I was voted out."

"Clark and I tried to convince him otherwise but without you there, the vote was pretty straightforward. Stewart, Diana and Wayne don't like you. Grayson sided with them. That was it. I think in their minds, Roy has all of the same skills as you do without being as independent. It also allows Wayne to control the tech we use."

"Honestly, I don't really care about that right now." Oliver replied. "So what's Diana been doing now that she's out of Metropolis?"

"She had been operating in South America again. Once I found out what had happened, I asked Ronnie to cover me but he could only manage every other night."

"So you asked Diana to cover the other half?" Oliver grumbled, suddenly feeling very guilty. "You didn't have to do that, Barry. I know that Diana kind of intimidates you."

"I know I didn't have to do it, Oliver.." Barry said evenly before turning back the computer. For a second, Oliver thought that Barry had something else to say but left it be at that.

It had been about ten minutes before Barry spoke again. Obviously, Oliver had been right about his intuition that Barry wasn't quite done speaking.

"You know that if this all goes sideways, you won't be the only one hurting, right?"

"Excuse me?" Oliver replied harshly.

Taking a deep breath, Barry stopped typing and rotated in his seat to face Oliver.

"Felicity once told me that you have an exceptional ability to place yourself on a pedestal." Barry said softly. "I knew she was right but I hadn't really seen it in large doses until the last couple of days."

Of all the times for Barry to come down on Oliver, now didn't really seem appropriate. At least not to Oliver.

"Normally, when you do it, it manifests as guilt." Barry continued. "You get 99% of something right that the average person would get 1% right and you drive yourself nuts over that 1%."

"That 1% gets people killed." Oliver reasoned, his voice nearly at the growl he reserved for The Green Arrow.

"Yes, it may but your 99% prevents a lot more deaths than that 1% could ever cause." Barry countered. "This time, the pedestal has reared its head in a different way. You think that you're the only person affected by this."

"Who else is affected by this, Barry?"

"Me!" Barry snapped. "I love Felicity, Oliver. Not in the same way that the two of you do but I do. She's like my female twin. More than Iris, more than Caitlin and more than Joe, she gets me."

"So that's why you're still here." Oliver accused. "Not to help me but to get her back."

"Don't put words in my mouth, Ollie." Barry countered and for the first time, Oliver saw a bit of anger slip into Barry's voice. Rarely did the younger man get riled up but Oliver was smart enough to know that when he did, it would not end well for him.

"I'm here for the both of you." Barry explained. "You guys both helped me find my way when I first started. At that point, you could have left me to my own devices. But you didn't. I got a phone call or a text message from someone on your team almost every week. Even when Felicity was gone, you managed to find a place for me."

"You're my friend, Barry. I don't have many." Oliver admitted. "While I've lightened up over the years, I'm still...a bit challenging to work with."

"Undersell it a bit more, why don't you?" Barry taunted with a smirk before turning serious again. "I know that Caitlin came to you."

"You did? How?"

"I heard the tail end of one of your phone conversations at STAR Labs." Barry admitted. "I never told her that I knew."

"She just needed a friend. I've certainly been in her shoes before." Oliver replied. "I know what it's like to love someone and feel like you can't be with them for one reason or another."

Suddenly, Barry leaned forward and placed a hand on Oliver's shoulder.

"That's why I'm still here. You could have treated us as allies but you didn't. You treated us as family. As it is, I'm going to have to go back to Central City and break the news of one death to Cisco and Caitlin. They both liked Lyla."

"They didn't know my mother that well."

"Actually, your mother is one of STAR Labs biggest fundraisers." Barry countered. "You don't think its a coincidence that she left Starling and just happened to go where the other publicly masked superhero lived, do you?"

"My mother knows you're The Flash."

"She has no idea." Barry smirked. "However, she has worked with The Flash on a few occasions. She always tried to get me to talk to you."

"Why didn't you?"

"Because I figured you would eventually reach out to her." Barry explained simply.

"I don't know how I could, Barry." Oliver admitted. "The plans that she took part in, the lies that she told Thea and I. How could I forgive her after that?"

"The same way I forgave you when you socked me before you went after Wayne." Barry responded. "By remembering that  _you_ are family."

How Oliver got so lucky, he would never know. He certainly didn't feel that he deserved the wonderful friends that he had.

But he wasn't going to push them away either.

Not this time.

"When you were all here the last time, I felt that same connection." Oliver said, leaning back in his chair. "It just felt like the two teams were one big family. Even with Laurel in there now, it's just one person to add to the family."

"Well, then let's focus on getting the rest of your family back." Barry cried before turning back to his computer and getting to work again.

For nearly an hour, the pair worked on the hack into the city security network. Like the hack into their own system, it wasn't particularly challenging. However, they had to go slow. If they didn't, they would be easily noticed by one of the tracer programs the SCPD had running through the network. Plus, they were laying the foundation of many false leads as they went through, doing their best Felicity Smoak impersonation as they went.

Unfortunately, even combined, they weren't even a glimpse of what Felicity Smoak could do with a computer.

"Shit." Barry replied as the warning notice popped up on the screen. "SCPD is tracking us."

"Keep going." Oliver ordered stubbornly. Another five minutes and they would be in. It would have to be worth the risk.

"Oliver, we can't. If they catch us, you go to jail and your family dies."

"If we don't get in, my family dies anyway."

Suddenly, Barry made up his mind. Quickly, he canceled the hack and backed out, leaving the false leads in place.

"Dammit!" Oliver shouted as he stood, throwing his arms up in frustration. "How are supposed to find out where they took the radios to if we can't get into the system?"

"Do you know anyone else that works on this kind of level?" Barry asked, equally frustrated. "I'm sorry, Oliver, but this is a risk we can't take. We need someone who knows what they're doing. I'm a forensic scientist, you're a..."

"Politician." Oliver smirked softly, doing his best to avoid letting his frustration bubble over.

"We're both good at a lot of things." Barry said before pointing back at the computer. "This is not one of those things. We need someone who knows this kind of stuff. Any ideas?"

For a second, Oliver's mind went blank. There was no one on Felicity's level. She graduated from the most prestigious university in terms of computer sciences in the country at the age of nineteen. That was almost unheard.

Almost being the keyword.

Smacking his head with the palm of his hand, Oliver groaned in frustration. Both for completely forgetting that this person could help and for having to call on him in the first place.

"There is one person." Oliver said, pulling out his cell phone.

As Oliver expected, he picked up on the first ring.

"Oliver Queen."

"Ray, we need your help."

* * *

**10 hours to deadline**

Unfortunately for Oliver, Ray was in Miami Beach which meant a flight back to the west coast before he could even arrive. Barry had suggested running across the country to get him. Unfortunately, Barry didn't have a way to carry him which would hurt Ray remarkably. Instead, they had to do the one thing neither of them were good at normally.

They had to be patient. At this point, The Green Arrow and The Flash had hit a dead-end.

Knowing that they had no leads to go on without Palmer's assistance, they instead focused on the next possible question: Who was controlling this operation?

With a giant dry erase board in front of them, Barry stood up at the board with Oliver seated in front of it as they looked at the list of names they had assembled.

Bruce Wayne  
Slade Wilson  
Nyssa al Ghul/Talia al Ghul  
Amanda Waller  
Malcolm Merlyn  
Lord/Sionis  
Milo Armitage  
Gholem Qadir  
The Count

"I would like to note that most of the people on this list are dead." Barry stated as he turned back towards Oliver.

"Dead is a relative term in our world." Oliver replied before looking at the list. "Honestly, I can't think of anyone else that fits the profile."

"You're certain they have to know that you're both Oliver Queen and The Green Arrow?"

"They had to be looking for this system." Oliver said simply. "You don't look for a system of this kind without knowing its there in the first place."

"Fair enough." Barry replied. "Who are these two?" Barry pointed at Armitage and Qadir.

"Armitage is an international smuggler of sorts. Basically, he goes after high priced items that are exceptionally illegal and either sells them to the highest bidder or he contracts out with a buyer before acquiring the object."

"And he hates you why?"

"Because I stopped him from selling the second Markov Device to Qadir during my second year as The Arrow. But in the process, I had to reveal my identity to Roy who could use his strength to get in the container. It is feasible that he saw me."

"And Qadir?"

"International black market arranger. He was supposedly killed in Markovia around the same time by Ben Turner."

"The Bronze Tiger? What the hell was he doing in Markvoia?"

"Working with Lyla and John on Task Force X." Oliver explained. "It could be that he really wanted to get after John or that he would hurt John the most by hurting me. He's the biggest stretch on the list."

"Not counting those that are dead."

"No, counting them too." Oliver smirked. "Also, as much as I hate him, this isn't Wayne's style. If he were ever to go off the deep end, he wouldn't contact us ahead of time."

"You would probably just find parts of them."

"Wow. That really helps the already depressing mood."

"Sorry." Barry said softly before turning back to the board and crossing Wayne off the list. "What about Tobias Whale? You busted him earlier this year."

"He's been in isolation the entire time. No outside visitors and his accounts were drained. He's basically the poorest man in the country now."

"Fair enough. What about Nyssa or Talia?"

"As far as I know, they both been using their acquired set of skills working for ARGUS. When they aren't, Waller had them locked up on Lian Yu in the new supermax."

"Any chance they could have escaped?"

"Absolutely." Oliver replied. "Their father was Ra's al Ghul. Without him around, they are the de facto heads of The League of Assassins. While we captured a lot of the League, there was still a pretty large percentage of them that never came to Starling City."

"So you think it's possible that it's them."

"Honestly, they're the most probably selection the list." Oliver said softly. "Both independently wealthy and probably pissed at me since I may have "arrow-ed" their father in front of them."

"Which would give them idea for taking your family."

"Like I said, I think their the most likely candidates out there."

"Duly noted." Barry said before turning back to the list. "So among the deceased, we have Waller, Merlyn, Wilson and The Count."

"The Count would have the motive but not the resources." Oliver reasoned aloud.

"Plus, he's dead."

"I'm not ruling anything out right now." Oliver replied firmly. "I watched Tommy Merlyn die. Twice. At this point, with you and Clark and everything else that's out there in the world now, I'm not ready to give up on the possibility that any of these people have come back from the grave."

"Good point." Barry replied. "We'll mark a maybe next to him. Wilson?"

"I imagine that he would still have the resources." Oliver said simply. "But I thought that things were better between us. I was actually pretty content with him being alive once Ra's was finished."

"You were still happier with him not in the city."

"That was mostly for Felicity." Oliver admitted. "Every time that he walked into the Foundry, I could just see her skin crawl. But she put up with it because she knew that we needed the help."

"Waller? You really think that Waller would fake her own death?"

"Honestly, I would be amazed if she didn't. The fact that she's dead but I never got a chance to see the body before it happened leaves me a little bit suspicious. Honestly, she's my number one candidate right now."

"Why though? She was cold but not vindictive."

"If you say that, then you didn't know her well enough." Oliver replied, haunting memories flashing before his eyes. "Some of the things that I did when I worked for ARGUS I haven't even told Felicity."

"Why not?"

"Because what I did was horrifying." Oliver admitted. "The number of people that I killed simply because I was told, it's unreal. And it wasn't like they were quick and simple deaths. I _tortured_ people, Barry, and most of them knew next to nothing."

"Why did you do it then?"

"She leveraged my life against the life of a child. Internally, I knew I would rather destroy my life than destroy the life of the child. Unfortunately, I wasn't strong enough to prevent either."

Looking up at Barry, Oliver could almost feel the cold look in the eyes of Amanda Waller on him again. With a chill running down his back, Oliver grit his teeth and spoke.

"Waller is cold, calculating, ruthless and would do anything to get what she wants. If there was ever a day that she decided she was going over the deep end, then I would be very high on the list of people that she wants to get back at."

"What made you so special?"

"I was the best she ever had." Oliver replied softly. "Then, I betrayed her. She ordered me to kill a man that I had come to respect. I refused and let him know that he had a hit out for him. He disappeared and I ended up back on the island. If she had thought for one moment that someone would have found me on that island, she would have put a bullet in my head without a second thought."

"Thank god for Lyla."

"Indeed." Oliver whispered, a silent prayer offered to the memory of his friend. "I've seen the corpse of Malcolm Merlyn. In fact, it's buried in Tommy's place on the grounds."

"Then why is he on the list?"

"Because I've seen weirder things happen."

"You really are the most paranoid person I've ever met."

"After all these years of doing what I do, I think I've earned the right."

"I suppose you have." Barry chuckled. "Come on, I'll go dig up Merlyn so we can get another name off this list."

"Done."

* * *

**8 hours to deadline**

After a quick check to guarantee that the body of Malcolm Merlyn remained in his grave, Oliver laid down to sleep for the first time in nearly two days. While Oliver had nearly hit Barry at the suggestion, he was again kindly reminded that if and when they found where his family was located, there was bound to be a fight.

A fight that Oliver would not win physically exhausted.

However, the sleep that Oliver did get was restless and nearly exhausting as being awake. Visions of Lyla's murder flashed in and out of his mind with flashes of his mother's face mixed in. However, it was the haunting sound of Felicity's voice that caused him the most distress. Numerous times, he heard her cry out for him only to wake, realizing that his own mind was playing the worst kind of tricks on him.

These were his worst fears playing over and over within his own mind. At this point, it was as if Oliver was fighting himself as much as he was his family's captors and the clock on the far side of the room which now read just under eight hours until they killed his mother.

"Any word on Palmer?" Oliver asked Barry.

"He called in about an hour ago. He was leaving Miami."

"Personal jet?"

"Yeah, he'll be here in about two hours. He's flying directly to your airfield where Cole will bring him here."

"How do you know all of that?"

"Because Palmer called City Hall and requested it. When Cole called us to confirm, I told him that you were resting but you did want Palmer here."

"And Cole just agreed to it?"

"Cole recognized me as a friend. I think he honestly knows that Palmer can be of some kind of help although he has no idea how."

"Good." Oliver said before attempting to roll back over and go to sleep. Unfortunately, someone else had other plans as his cell phone rang. Groggily, Oliver reached into his pocket and pulled out the phone. Not recognizing the number, Oliver answered anyway.

"Mayor Queen."

"Mr. Queen, this is Snapper Carr."

"Snapper?" Oliver asked with some confusion before remembering the man who assisted Thea in Keystone City. "How did you get this number?"

"Thea gave it to me in case of emergency." Snapper replied softly. "I hope this counts."

"What can I do for you?"

"I don't think the people that took your family care about you being The Mayor."

"What makes you say that?"

"Because I saw that footage of Lyla Diggle being shot."

"How?"

"System link, remember? I was looking for Thea and Roy when my system was suddenly overtaken by that strange video."

"You watched?" Oliver asked.

"I didn't have any other choice." Snapper replied, his voice barely above a whisper. "Listen, I just spent my life savings on a plane ticket. I was just wondering if I could get a ride."

"You're in Starling City?" Oliver asked.

"Plane just landed."

"I'll be there in fifteen minutes." Oliver said as he grabbed his coat and keys. "Be outside."

True to form, Oliver was at the gate in ten minutes where Snapper Carr was already waiting outside. Oliver barely let the vehicle come to stop for Snapper to get in before he took off again. Oliver had no real desire to be seen at the airport and a real desire to get back to the ArrowCave as quickly as possible.

"What are you doing in Starling City, Snapper?" Oliver asked as he dodged his way through traffic.

"I want to help, Mr. Queen."

"Why?"

"What do you mean?" Snapper asked in confusion.

"Why do you want to help?"

For a few seconds, Snapper didn't answer. Instead, he sat and silently stared out the front window as if lost to the world around him.

"Snapper?"

"They saved my life." Snapper admitted. "That freak Buchinsky had taken a bunch of us hostage, trying to draw out Firestorm. However, this was during Ronnie's time back in Central trying to mend things with Dr. Snow."

"So Thea and Roy took on The Electrocutioner." Oliver filled in.

"Yeah, beat him to within an inch of his life when he kept trying to kill some of the hostages." Snapper said, smiling sadly. "He put one of the hostages in a coma and got me pretty good."

Raising his right arm, Oliver saw the unmistakable marks of electrical burn. Those scars would last forever. Thank goodness for his sake that Thea and Roy were there.

"I spent the next two months doing my best to find them. I know I'm not any great shake at any of the tech stuff but like they said, I do know my metalwork. Eventually, I found them and told them what I wanted. I didn't want to be out in the field and I didn't want to be trained. I just wanted to help them out."

"Did they trust you right away?" Oliver asked curiously.

"Of course not." Snapper replied as if Oliver had just asked the stupidest question in the world. "It was another five months of working for them before I found out who they were."

"Good." Oliver said before he noticed the look on Snapper's face. "I'm glad they had you. But I'm also glad they didn't just immediately trust you. We've had problems with being too trusting in the past."

"Yeah." Snapper muttered before continuing on. "Anyway, the night Roy and Thea disappeared, they had been talking about going out of town. I figured they had just left and forgotten to tell me."

"Obviously that wasn't the case."

"I actually knew that relatively quickly." Snapper shot back. "You see Thea and Roy had trackers placed into their arms. Better than the cell phone trackers. So, when they didn't check in, I looked into their tracers."

"Where were they?" Oliver asked desperately as they pulled into the ArrowCave.

"Around the Mississippi River and moving fast. But that's when I knew something was wrong, their markers disappeared."

"Whoever took them shut them off or removed them."

"Yeah, I knew something was up there. Unfortunately, I couldn't get out to Starling City until now."

"Why didn't you call me before now?" Oliver said roughly as he got out of the car. "We don't know exactly where they are but we could have at least focused our efforts."

"You know where they are?" Barry asked as he approached the pair of them.

"No, we know they were moving passed the Mississippi when Snapper lost track of them." Oliver filled Barry in before turning back to the man in front of them. "Why didn't you contact me before then?"

"Because it took me three days to get the money together to come here and another day to get the combination of numbers right."

"What?" Oliver asked in confusion.

"Personally, I don't know Thea Queen or Roy Harper." Snapper started to explain. "To completely avoid suspicion, we don't have any contact outside of our bunker. However, this means that I also can't take down any numbers that would relate to them and I can't have them saved in my phone."

"Because if someone ever found the phone, they would start asking questions once they realized who the number belonged to." Oliver finished, wondering if his sense of paranoia was finally getting the better of those that he had trained.

"Yeah, so I had to memorize the number but I had never used yours before." Snapper admitted sheepishly. "Trust me, Thea and Roy mean the world to me. They're my best friends and they saved my life. If something happens to them, I don't know what I'll do. If I could have gotten this information to you any quicker, I would have."

Looking at the man, he knew that he was telling the truth simply by looking into the man's eyes. The look of desperation that the man held in his eyes matched the one that Oliver saw whenever he caught himself in the mirror.

"I know." Oliver said before turning to Barry. "Now that we have the smallest idea about where they could be heading, let's get to work."

* * *

_**6 hours to deadline** _

_"Ray just arrived."_  Oliver heard in his earpiece.

"Thanks, Barry. Give him the update and get to work. I'll be back as soon as possible."

_"Are you sure this is want?"_

"I definitely don't want this." Oliver countered. "However, I am equally responsible to this city as I am to my family. Right now, I can't take care of both."

_"OK. I just wanted to make sure that you were sure."_

"I'm sure." Oliver said softly and sadly. This was certainly not how he wanted this to happen.

"Mr. Mayor?"

Oliver turned to see Pete Ross walking towards him, a clipboard in hand. He looked upset.

"It's just Oliver now."

"It shouldn't be." Pete returned, a fire in his voice. "This city needs you."

"And it will always have me." Oliver said softly, placing a hand on Pete's shoulder. "But I'm not any good version of Oliver Queen without those that I care about. They make me the man that I am."

"But you're just giving up? They would be okay with that."

"Likely not." Oliver admitted. "But, this isn't their choice. It's mine."

"Fair enough, Mr.-Oliver."

As the words left Pete's mouth, Myra came over to the pair of them.

"They're ready for you, Mr. Queen."

"Like I told Pete, it's just Oliver now." he replied, smiling as much as he could.

"It will always be Mr. Mayor or Mr. Queen to me." Myra answered courteously. "Now, let's do this one more time, shall we?"

Following Myra and Pete, Oliver was led outside City Hall to the same podium from which he had given his last speech. It was a rainy day but it hadn't stopped the sea of reporters and photographers from surrounding the podium, all begging for the chance to ask Oliver some form of the same questions.

Standing behind the podium, Oliver simply waited for the crowd gathered to quiet down before he began speaking.

"To the men and women of Starling City, I would first like to thank you for your support over the past few months. Without your votes, your concerns and your prayers, I wouldn't have gotten here in the first place, let alone been moderately successful."

Oliver suddenly had a feeling of great helplessness. He grasped the edge of the podium, feeling the plastic buckle under the grip of his powerful hands before he spoke again.

"Unfortunately, my time as Mayor has come to an end. Despite following the instructions of those that took my family to the letter, they still have not returned my family. It is at this point that I have to do both what's best for my family and for Starling City. Neither party benefits from me being half involved and so a decision had to be made."

Before Oliver could get the next words out, he choked a cough brought on by the sudden dryness in his mouth. Reaching for the glass of water in front of him, Oliver drank deeply, his hands shaking as he lifted the glass to his mouth to allow the cool water to pass over his lips and down his throat.

Giving another slight cough to clear his throat, Oliver continued.

"Effectively immediately, I am resigning as Mayor of Starling City. I will spent the next few hours working with City Council and my senior staff to provide a transition plan before another can be selected by City Council to finish out my term."

"Any idea who they make pick?" one of the reporters in the front asked.

"Unfortunately, ma'am, I am not taking any questions today." Oliver answered. "When I get my family back, I'll answer any questions you have. Until then, any questions are to be directed to City Council and Council Chairman, James Bilius."

Oliver took a second to look directly in the camera. The next part of his speech hadn't been scripted but something that Oliver felt was needed.

"Thank you, Starling City, for your support. You could have held my past behavior against me. Instead, you realized that I am a change man and one devoted to helping Starling City. I will always be there for my home and its citizens. God bless you all."

Having said his piece, Oliver turned and marched back up the steps of City Hall. As he did, voices shouted and cameras flashed but Oliver ignored them. He knew there would be time for that later. What he needed right now was to set up a plan for the next Mayor and then get back to his home.

Unfortunately for him, that was going to have to wait. As Oliver marched up the stairs, he was met by Cole Cash who quickly fell in step with him.

"What can I do for you, Cole?" Oliver asked.

"You can meet me in your office for a moment." Cole said softly.

"It's not my office anymore." Oliver reminded him.

"Then let's pretend that it is." Cole urged. Something about his tone didn't seem right.

"OK." Oliver said quickly before turning to Pete and Myra. "I'm going to talk with Cole about the transition. I'm tired of having his men around my house anyway."

Both Pete and Myra nodded and then moved on to their next meeting without him. Quickly, Oliver found an empty room and stepped inside.

"What is it, Cole?" Oliver asked impatiently. "I don't really have time for this."

"I know."

"You know what?"

"That you are The Green Arrow."

Apparently, this was no longer really a secret. Now, it was more of an inside joke, something that a large group of people knew but was kept mum to the rest of the world. Taking a seat, Oliver rubbed his hands over his eyes.

"How did you find out?"

"I did the math." Cole said as he sat across from him. "First, you become Mayor and The Green Arrow nearly disappears. Second, John Diggle gets shot and both The Arrow and The Hood are off the streets. Meanwhile, Laurel Lance disappears from the Welcoming Ball and moments later, The Canary is patrolling the streets. But this biggest giveaway was the disappearing. I have multiple reports from my men stationed at your house that you would go into the house and then just disappear."

"It's a big house." Oliver mumbled.

"So the next time it happened, I had the SWAT Team fly an infrared helicopter over your house." Cole fired. "I'm the only one that's seen the footage of Oliver Queen just randomly disappearing into a wall."

"Well that's good to know at least." Oliver whispered. "Now, who have you told?"

"No one and I have no intention of telling anyone." Cole countered. "Listen, we both know that your family wasn't taken because you were The Green Arrow."

"Actually, they were."

"You've been in contact with the captors?" Cole questioned in shock. "And you haven't told the police?"

"They're communicating through my GA dedicated server. What am I supposed to do? Just lead them down there and show off all of my neat gear? Whoever has done this knows that I'm both Oliver Queen and The Green Arrow. They're playing a game with me. They've already killed Lyla Diggle and my mother will be next if we can't find them in the next five and a half hours."

"Do you need any more help?" Cole asked. "I'm no John Diggle as you told me so eloquently on our first day together but I can certainly be of some assistance."

"Quit your job with City Hall." Oliver ordered. "You work on my security detail now."

"Done."

"Then let's get back to Queen Mansion so that I can get some real work done."

* * *

_**3 hours to deadline** _

With only three hours left to go, the ArrowCave was as busy as it had been in months with Oliver and Ray being the regular Team Arrow members and honorary members Barry, Cole and Snapper helping out around the edges.

"How is it coming?" Oliver asked Ray as he worked.

"Slowly." Ray admitted. "You guys have to understand. I can do all of the things that Felicity does. The difference is that she does it in ten minutes. I take four hours."

"I understand, Ray." Oliver said. "Do what you can to get us into the system."

"What do we do when we're in?"

"We track the van that we saw outside of the SkyLabs warehouse." Barry answered for Oliver. "Once we find that, we can at least find out where those mercenaries came from."

"And hopefully, that eventually leads us to the man with the money." Oliver added.

"Speaking of men with money." Snapper commented. "I've got an incoming call from Wayne Enterprises."

"Shit." Oliver growled. "Ray, you stay and keep working. The rest of you, I need the room."

"Oliver?" Barry asked, obviously hurt by Oliver asking him to leave.

"The less people here, the better." Oliver reasoned. "He has to stay." Oliver said, indicating Ray. "Plus, I don't want him to know that I've been recruiting. It could lead his fucked up brain to some bad places."

"Fair point." Barry replied before joining Snapper and Cole in leaving the ArrowCave. Once Oliver saw that they were up the stairs, Oliver spoke to the computer system.

"Answer call. Far wall screen."

Following his commands, Oliver watched as the screen in at the far end of the room activated with a link to Wayne's Batcave appearing.

Not surprisingly, he wasn't alone. Grayson had remained. But there were three others also there. One was Barbara Gordon who had assumed the codename Oracle in honor to Felicity's skills. Gordon was good, Felicity was better and she was easily able to deduce who this new Oracle was. Apparently, she had been helping Wayne behind the scenes for the last several months, if the computer records were accurate.

And they were investigated by Felicity which meant that there was an extremely small chance they were wrong.

The other woman in the room was new. She had a fierce look about her and long brown hair that cascaded down passed her shoulders.

"Who is she?" Oliver asked harshly.

"Oliver Queen, Cassandra Cain. Cassandra, Oliver." Wayne muttered. "What is Palmer doing there?"

"Ray is The Atom. He's also working on accessing the city's security network so we can use the city's security cam footage." Oliver replied before speaking to the last person in the screen. "Clark."

"Oliver, how are you holding up?" The Last Son of Krypton asked.

"As well as you can when your entire family's been abducted and someone you thought was a friend left you in the cold."

"About that." Wayne muttered softly.

"Yes, about  _that."_ Oliver growled. "What about that?"

"I didn't handle that in the way that I should have." Wayne said softly.

"You didn't handle that in the way that you should have? What the hell does that even mean?" Oliver barked. "Lyla Diggle is dead. In three hours, my mother is dead and within the next couple of days, the man whose become like a younger brother to me is dead. Meanwhile, with no prep, no warning, you up and leave to track a signal that could simply pass us by!"

Wayne breathed as if to speak. Unfortunately for him, Oliver wasn't done.

"Not only that!" Oliver roared. "But I see that you've got quite the list of allies there that could have kept you updated on the situation without you needing to be there. So I'd just like to know. What the fuck was the real reason you left?"

"I left because I had to." Wayne said evenly. "I have allies. I have contacts. I don't have the luxury of having friends."

"So because you left because you thought we might become friends if you stayed?" Oliver asked, the rage finally breaking through in his voice. "How fucked up is that. So you can't have friends. Give me one good reason why not."

"Because if you ever turn or if Barry ever turns, I can't hesitate when I go after you."

"You know that you are completely fucking nuts, right?" Oliver said softly. "If you polled every person who knew you and me, I think we all know who they would pick to turn."

"Probably." Wayne admitted. "But that doesn't mean that it's true. We both know how you started,  _Vigilante."_

Using the name of the wraith that Oliver had been when he returned from the island pissed Oliver off like no other.

"That was a different time and a different version of me." Oliver said evenly, his tone threatening. "We both know that things are different now."

"Do we?"

At this point, Oliver was tired of playing Wayne's game. He just wanted the giant image of his face off the screen in front of him.

"So that's the best apology I'm going to get."

"I don't apologize when I'm not wrong." was Wayne's reply.

"What the hell do you want?" Oliver asked, desperate to end this conversation.

"I wanted to inform you of a few things." Wayne said firmly. "First, I've been outvoted and you've been readmitted to The Justice League."

"That's really a priority right now?"

"You've always been made it's co-leader with Clark." Wayne pressed forward. "I doubt that really means much until we're out in the field but I wanted you to be aware that you were right about the rest of the group's feelings about me."

"Did you just say I was right?" Oliver smirked.

"Anyway, Clark is going to be administering the experimental tech on me today to see if we can't fix my paralysis. This will leave me out of commission for a few days."

"Why should I care?"

"Because to make up for my behavior, I've expanded the link between our systems." Wayne said begrudgingly. "You now have access to everything other than my personnel files on members of my team."

"Unless they're behind the abduction of my family, I wouldn't need them anyway."

"They're not so you won't." Wayne replied, a not so subtle challenge hiding in his voice. "In all honesty, I do hope that you find your family."

"Thanks." Oliver said softly, not sure how to continue. Finally, a thought occurred to him. "You know we're fairly similar, you and I?"

"The similarity has been noted by others."

"Well, I tried doing this on my own for awhile." Oliver said softly. "I tried doing it with allies and not friends. It made me unhappy. I hope that for your sake and those that you work with that you learn from my mistake and attempt to be friends with them and us someday."

"I wouldn't hold your breath."

"I'm not going to." Oliver admitted. "But I do wish it for you."

"I appreciate the sentiment."

"Anything else?" Oliver asked softly, a bit upset that he had failed to reach the man.

"That's all."

"Good luck with him, Clark." Oliver said to Superman.

"Keep working, Oliver." Clark said softly. "You'll find them."

"Damn straight I will." Oliver growled as he ended the video connection.

Sitting down, Oliver couldn't help but feel conflicted. On one hand, Wayne had done everything possible over the years to antagonize him. However, Oliver couldn't help but feel that Wayne was stuck in the stage that Oliver had been in when he had first returned from Lian Yu.

That led to the one obvious difference between the two of them.

Felicity Smoak.

Without her, Oliver was uncertain that he would have ever snapped out of that fog and he may have remained a killing machine who simply made his way down The List until it was done.

Instead, he became a hero and a man with friends and a family, things that wouldn't have been possible without her presence.

Which made it so much more important that he got her back. Without her, there were was always the risk that The Green Arrow would revert back to being The Vigilante.

And then Wayne  _would_ have to come after him.

* * *

_**Deadline** _

For the second time, Oliver watched as the clock in the corner ticked away until nothing. As he did, he heard Ray typing frantically.

"Stop." Oliver ordered.

"What?" Ray asked softly.

"Let's focus our energy on something we can control." Oliver said. "They're going to send us a transmission soon. Let's be ready to trace it."

"You know we aren't going to be able to trace it completely."

"Then get us a good head start." Oliver whispered before leaning back and closing his eyes.

Once again, he had failed. This time, it would be his mother that would pay the price. At this very moment, Oliver didn't know how to feel. He certainly loved his mother. She was his mother after all. However, he didn't like her. She was a horrible and deceitful person who took advantage of others for her own personal gain.

Still, she was the only mother he was ever going to get.

As the clock struck zero, once again every screen in the room before showing an image of Moira Queen tired to a chair alone.

She was a mess. She looked tired and disheveled as if she she hadn't bathed or slept well in days. She had a small cut just above her right eye. Knowing his mother the way he did, she had probably decided to get smart with one of the guards at one point.

Probably not one of her better ideas.

Again, Oliver was just thankful that she appeared to be the only one in the frame. It wasn't he really looked at the room around her that Oliver saw something that made his stomach turn, a rare thing for someone who had seen so much during his lifetime.

They hadn't moved her. Instead, the body of Lyla Diggle just laid on the floor in the back of the room like a piece of trash thrown out the window by a careless driver speeding down the road. The thought of it made Oliver's blood boil.

However, when he focused on the sight of his mother, tired and frightened, he remembered that there were still more important things on hand than how they dealt with the body of his murdered friends and family.

"Everyone out." Oliver ordered. This time, no one argued and within seconds, the room was clear.

**"OLIVER QUEEN, YOUR FAMILY WILL PAY FOR YOUR FAILURES WITH THEIR LIVES."**

"Why are you doing this?" Oliver asked, his voice barely above the level of a whisper.

 **"IT IS YOUR PUNISHMENT."** the voice said simply.

Oliver noticed something about this voice that he hadn't before. At first, Oliver had just assumed that the voice was generated by a computer. However, the more Oliver listened, the more he noticed very small inflections in the voice.

So, Oliver's second guess had been that it was a person using a voice distorter or modulator much like he did when he was out as The Green Arrow. But the more this voice said, Oliver noticed something else.

The inflections were certainly there and most of the time, they were exactly in the right place. But sometimes, they weren't. Emphasis would be placed on words that no human being would consider important.

All of this begged the question: Just what exactly was this voice and where was it coming from?

"For what?"

 **"YOU WILL FIND OUT WHEN THE LAST OF YOUR FAMILY HAS TAKEN THEIR LAST BREATH."** the voice answered before continuing.  **"AGAIN, YOU WILL BE GIVEN FIVE MINUTES WITH YOUR FAMILY BEFORE YOUR PUNISHMENT IS CARRIED OUT."**

Oliver went to raise his voice to speak when someone entered the frame. It was one of the mercenaries and in his hand was one of the largest knives Oliver had seen in his entire life.

As he reached his mother, he took that sword and with one thrust, plunged the blade into her stomach, leaving it in place as he walked away.

"I thought I was allowed five minutes to talk to her!" Oliver begged.

**"AND YOU SHALL. ACCORDING TO OUR CALCULATIONS, IT WILL TAKE HER A LITTLE OVER FIVE MINUTES TO BLEED OUT. TALK FAST, OLIVER QUEEN, FOR YOUR MOTHER'S TIME RUNS SHORT."**

"Mom!" Oliver shouted.

"O-ooliver." Moira whispered back, the pain obvious in her voice. "I can hear you."

"I'm so sorry, Mom." Oliver said, tears rushing down his face. "I did everything I could to find you."

"Don't b-be sad for me, Oliver." Moira whispered, her voice already sounding weaker. "This i-s-s m-my punishment f-f-for the terrib-b-ble things I've d-d-done. F-f-find the others before they hurt someone else."

"I will." Oliver said firmly. "I'm so sorry for the way I've treated you."

"N-never b-be sorry. I d-d-deserved everything you s-said t-t-to me and worse." Moira replied before looking up at the camera, a strength suddenly returning to her. "I'm glad that you found a family. You found a family that loves you and that you love. For that, I am grateful. Just keep working. I know that you'll find them."

Suddenly, Oliver watched as Moira slipped the ropes that had been tying her to the chair. If she had been able to slip the knots before she had been stabbed, maybe she would have been able to run.

But both Oliver and Moira knew that it was too late for that. She wasn't trying to run and the guards weren't trying to stop her.

Looking up at the camera, Moira spoke, finally breaking down in front of her son.

"I love you, Oliver. You and Thea both. I'm so sorry for how I treated you and how I lied to you. Just know that I did everything I did for you."

"I know, Mom." Oliver said softly, realizing what Moira was about to do.

Suddenly, Moira grasped the handle of the knife and tugged, pulling the knife out of the wound and giving the blood that had been trying to escape the freedom to flow.

"Be strong, Oliver. Come and get your family." she whispered as he literally watch the strength leave her. "Don't leave them with these people."

"I won't." Oliver promised her. "I'm coming for them.

"good..." Moira whispered. "Robert would have been so proud of you."

With those final words, the knife fell out of Moira's hands and she closed her eyes, never to open them again. Finally, her body gave way and collapsed to the floor, motionless.

As her body hit the floor, the disembodied voice spoke again.

**"AGAIN YOU HAVE FAILED YOUR FAMILY, OLIVER QUEEN. YOU NOW HAVE 24 HOURS BEFORE THE ARSENAL BECOMES THE NEXT VICTIM OF YOUR INCOMPETANCE."**


	12. A Sacrifice of a Different Nature

_**23 hours to deadline** _

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Unlike the last time this had happened, there was no lack of focus. Whereas Lyla's death had caused a rage that Oliver didn't understand how to control, his mother's death gave him focus. Seconds after watching his mother bleed out, Oliver had grabbed his bow and a crate of tennis balls and went to work.

He'd been at it for nearly an hour and hadn't missed a single one. It didn't matter that his target was faceless, nameless and altogether mysterious. What mattered was the focus that his mother's death had brought to him.

The death of his mother hadn't been as confusing as Oliver had thought it was going to be. As much as he detested what his mother had done, he was heartbroken. Honestly, Oliver thought that Moira wasn't necessarily a bad person. She was just a good person with a broken morale compass. It wasn't like Slade Wilson who did what he did for revenge or Malcolm Merlyn who did what he did out of genocidal madness.

This was a woman who did what she could to keep her children safe in a world that she didn't trust. Now, did she do some very inappropriate things to accomplish her goals. Yes. Oliver knew that. However, he found it hard to fault her entirely. While he would never truly be able to forgive her for what she had done over the years, he certainly could understand.

He just wished that they had been able to talk one more time without a small sword sticking out of her.

However, if there was one thing that Moira's death had done for him, it had strengthened his resolve. He was going to find whoever had taken his family and they were going to pay in the worst way imaginable.

"Yes!"

His concentration broken, Oliver turned to see Ray Palmer, arms over his head in celebration.

"Something good?" Oliver asked, placing his bow on the table nearest to him.

"We're in." Ray replied before turning the monitor around to face him. Ray had successfully done what Barry and Oliver had failed to do together.

He had gotten into the city's security network. Instantly, Oliver's mind was whirring as he raced around the desk to sit next to Oliver. Seconds later, Barry, Snapper and Cole were standing just behind Oliver, all watching with baited breath.

The process was simple. All Ray had to do now was go to the day of the theft and follow the van to its location. The city's security cameras all uploaded to the same server which meant that access to the system had given them a view of the whole city, something that they normally had but without Felicity, it took much longer to get back into the system.

For about twenty minutes, Oliver and Ray scanned the video footage of that evening, following the van as it left SkyLabs and drove around the city for nearly ten minutes before making a break for it, leaving the city limits.

"Shit." Oliver said. "We're going to need more than just the city's security network."

"Just when I thought that I was finished." Ray joked softly.

"Snapper, take down the van's license plate number. Use that to get its VIN and you should be able to get a complete vehicle history." Oliver ordered. "I want to know every person that's ever held the deed to that van."

"What can I do?" Cole asked.

"Keep watching the video." Oliver requested. "I can't imagine that the path the van took before leaving town was random. Look for anything out of the ordinary."

"Got it."

"Barry, check all the police reports in California, Nevada, Arizona, Idaho, Oregon, Colorado and New Mexico for reports of a stolen van or anything involving the destruction of a van."

"You think they stole it?"

"It's possible." Oliver admitted. "What's more likely is that once they got out of town they ditched it."

"I'll figure it out." Barry replied before turning to go back to his station.

With everyone else working, Oliver sat down at his terminal and took a deep breath. This was the first real break they'd had in days. It seemed like whoever it was that had done this to him had done everything they could to cover their tracks. Not only that but they were covered in such a way that it took Oliver and his team much more work than it normally would to uncover their tracks.

If this had been a normal case, more than likely the strategy would have been for their opponent to make a mistake. They always did. Even in this case, they had made a small one with the radios. Unfortunately, they just didn't have the time to wait. They literally had to break the case open, a fact made tougher when their main case-breaker was one of those that had been taken.

"Oliver, I've got something." Snapper shouted, causing Oliver to nearly fall out of his seat. Regaining his balance, Oliver jumped over to Snapper where a vehicle history report was up on the computer.

"What do you have?"

"Currently, the van is owned by a Patrick McKellan." Snapper started. "In the past, it has been owned by an Ian Patrick and a Hugh Berry. But check out the first owner."

Looking at the list, Oliver couldn't believe their luck. If getting into the city's security network had been a break, this was a miracle.

"First purchased by Janus Cosmetics." Oliver read aloud. "We've got him."

"What?" Barry asked absentmindedly.

"Look into those three people. Odds are they were former Janus employees at one point." Oliver ordered Snapper before turning to Barry. "The van was owned by Janus Cosmetics."

"Which used to be owned by Roman Sionis." Barry said with a smile. "We've finally got something."

"At the very least, we now have Sionis and Lord working together. What we don't have is the money."

"Well, then let's hope that I can get into this system sometime soon." Ray replied. "We'll need to know where that van is going."

"Speaking of vans," Barry said, obviously seguewaying to a new point. "we should trace the vans from Queen Mansion and the Diggle home to see where they go."

"Good idea." Oliver replied before turning back to his computer. "You take Queen Mansion, I'll take Diggle's house."

As Oliver sat down to start scanning the video footage, he couldn't help but think that they were finally getting close. After four days of floundering in the dark, they were finally stepping out into the light.

And someone was going to pay for what they had done.

* * *

_**22 hours to deadline** _

For the last hour, Oliver had done nothing but track the movements of the vehicle that had taken Diggle and his family. It appeared that the vehicles had attempted to hide within the city for part of the evening. Obviously, someone had assumed that they would be unable to get into the security network to track their movements.

Thankfully, they were very wrong as Ray Palmer was now part of the way through accessing the nation's security network. In the era of newer technologies, the federal government had sought ways to make tracking criminals who traveled between states easier.

Enter the Federal Security Database. Basically, every security camera in every large city in the country would have their footage synced to this database. Access to said database was nearly impossible to get due to the massive privacy concerns that most citizens still had with the system. However, when accessed, it had been incredibly successful at catching criminals who had attempted to cross state borders to hide from prosecution.

Thankfully, with their facial recognition software and vehicle tracking program, they would be able to find the van with the radios the very moment it was captured by another security camera in a large city.

Of course, that meant banking on the fact that they had entered another large city. However, their enemy had already assumed they wouldn't get into their local security network. It wasn't a stretch to think that they would also assume they wouldn't be able to get into the federal one. At least not in time to do any work.

However, when you have one of the smartest men in the planet working with the programs of probably the most skilled computer hacker in the world, anything was possible.

Oliver just prayed that they were quick enough.

If not, the death of Roy Harper would be on their hands.

His hands.

"Oliver, can I ask you something?"

That voice belonged to the uncertain timbre of The Flash, Barry Allen.

"Sure." Oliver said, turning away from his computer for a second.

"You told me the other day that you think Iris will come back." Barry started. "Were you just saying that to be nice or did you mean it?"

It amazed Oliver that despite literally being the fastest man on the planet, Barry still managed to hold such an insecurity about him when it came to Iris.

"You do know that Iris leaving has nothing to do with whether she cares about, right?"

"What do you mean?"

"Barry, that woman has loved you since she was a child." Oliver explained. "Sure, it wasn't the same kind of love that you felt for a long time but it's love nonetheless. She loves you. Always has, always will."

"I know that. But it's different." Barry said weakly. "I'm going to literally watch her die. I'm going to watch all of you die."

"You probably won't watch Clark die."

"You aren't helping." Barry replied darkly, rolling his eyes. "I don't even know if I should be wanting her back. Maybe it's better for her to just stay away."

With that, Barry rotated in just chair just enough that he couldn't see Oliver. That gave Oliver the opening he needed.

THWACK!

The back of Oliver's hand smacked cleanly against the back of Barry's skull, causing him to gasp in pain. Reaching back to rub the spot where Oliver had hit him, he turned back around to face him.

"What the hell was that for?" Barry asked, still rubbing the spot on the back of his head.

"For being an idiot." Oliver answered with a grin. "Do you know who you sound like?"

"No."

"You sound like me before Felicity and I got together." Oliver continued. "I was convinced,  _convinced,_ that there was no way in hell that I deserved her. Dammit, I was convinced I didn't deserve anyone. It was the penalty for the life I led. It was also what drove Felicity away the first time."

"That and the colossal beating you took to protect her." Barry countered with a grin.

"That didn't help." Oliver admitted. "Either way, if I knew that I was going to outlive Felicity by forty years, I would still ask her to marry me. If I knew that I was going to outlive her by one hundred years, I would ask her to marry me."

"How can you say that?" Barry said harshly. "That's not going to happen."

"Not to me. But it could happen for her." Oliver reminded him. "Even if I never spend another day as The Green Arrow, I've got years in on a hard life. She knows that even if I take great care of myself, my lifestyle, both the one before the island and the one after, will probably catch up me sooner than later. When that happens, she'll be left alone."

"But she won't be alone. She'll have Diggle and Laurel and Thea and Roy."

"Exactly." Oliver said softly. "Iris will have Caitlin and Cisco and Joe who will all be going through the same thing. Hell, she'll have me. We'll all be watching ourselves get older while you stay roughly the same."

"I'm not immortal." Barry muttered.

"I know but it's going to seem like it to those of us that age at a normal rate."

Finally, Barry seemed to reach an impasse. He stood and made his way across the room where there was a picture of all the members of Team Arrow. It was the one and only time that every member of Team Arrow had been present.

Technically, Laurel hadn't been added to the active roster yet but she had known Oliver's secret.

It had been such a long time ago.

Before Felicity left.

Before Sara died.

Before Diggle lost his wife and before Oliver had lost his mother.

"You have such a great family, Oliver." Barry mused as he looked at the picture.

"I do." Oliver admitted before walking over to Barry. "But I'm not the only one."

"All I have is Iris." Barry said softly. "She's been my everything for years. She's broken my heart and left me high and dry but I still love her more than life itself."

"You also have Caitlin, Cisco, Joe, Felicity, me."

"It's not the same."

"It's absolutely the same!" Oliver barked before grabbing Barry and bringing him face-to-face with him. "Here's the deal, Allen. You love Iris, there's no doubt about that. She loves you, there's no doubt about that. Sometimes though, love alone isn't enough to keep things going."

"You sound like you're speaking from experience?"

"Laurel." Oliver said, one word explaining almost everything. "I love her. She loves me. There's really no question about it. There's been too much in our history for it to be any other way."

"But?"

"Like I said, love isn't enough sometimes. We weren't good for each other. She had expectations that I couldn't meet and I cheated on her more times than I would care to admit." Oliver said before returning to the conversation at hand. "My point is this: go to her. Talk to her. If she can't handle it, then she can't handle it. There will still be that love between you. That kind of bond never goes away."

Finally, it looked like Oliver had gotten through to the younger man. Slowly, Barry nodded his understanding.

"You know I never had a brother." Barry said suddenly. "My parents had always talked about having another kid but never got around to it."

"Me neither. Between the craziness that my sister and I put on our parents, I doubt they could have handled another." Oliver said, sadly thinking of the stunts he pulled on his mother. "But, sometimes brotherhood isn't about blood."

"Good to know." Barry replied softly. "You know you would have made a shitty older brother."

"Excuse me?" Oliver said, a smile coming to his face for the first time in days.

"You would have been the older brother that took the car to school but made me ride the bus."

"Well, Thea and I went to different schools."

"That's what I thought." Barry said with a smirk before going back to his work.

Family is more than blood. In this case, it was the bond of shared experiences. Honestly, Oliver was glad to be working closely with one brother.

Now to save the other.

* * *

_**21 hours to deadline** _

For the next forty minutes, the revamped version of Team Arrow worked in silence. Of all of them, Ray was under the most pressure. Without his work being completed, they stood no chance to figure out where his family had been taken. So, since silence was Ray's preferred form of work, that's how they worked.

That is until the computer started letting Oliver know about an incoming transmission. Thankfully, this was not one of the untraceable ones. Still, its originating location was a bit strange.

STAR Labs, Central City.

"Barry." Oliver said before motioning to the incoming notification. "I think it's for you."

"Answer it." Barry replied softly.

"Computer, put it on Barry's screen." Oliver said before standing and walking behind Barry. If Oliver had expected it to be Caitlin or Cisco, he was going to be sorely disappointed.

However, he wasn't disappointed to see who it actually was: Iris West-Allen. Unfortunately, Oliver's joy at seeing Barry's estranged wife contacting him quickly dissipated when he saw how Iris looked.

She was terrified.

"Barry?" Iris said softly, tears falling slowly.

"Iris. What is it?" Barry asked, quickly on edge.

"It was Snart."

Leonard Snart, aka Captain Cold, was supposedly under containment in the STAR Labs Metahuman Prison held within their Particle Accelerator.

Oliver had a sneaking suspicion that was no longer the case.

"What happened?" Barry asked desperately.

"There was a power surge from some sort of external source." Iris replied. "CCPD thinks it was someone trying to break him out."

"Iris, what happened?" Barry asked again.

"He got to the main lab where Caitlin and Cisco were working." Iris answered, her voice breaking slightly. "Cisco was apparently working on some sort of sound device."

"His high frequency generator." Barry said softly. "He'd been trying to create a way to stall Gorilla Grodd the next time he tried to attack. He thought the high frequencies would throw him off."

"Yeah, that." Iris replied before continuing. "When he attacked, Cisco activated it before Snart was able to encase him in ice with the high frequency generator. According to the surveillance footage, when that happened, Caitlin tried to stop him. Snart grabbed her and put his cold gun down her throat."

"Oh my god." Oliver whispered softly, placing a hand on Barry's shoulder.

"No." was the only word that Barry could mutter before dropping his head, fighting back the tears that Oliver could see coming.

"Barry, she's...alive." Iris replied. Oliver saw from Iris' expression that she was aware just how distraught Barry was over the thought of Caitlin's death. Internally, he wondered how Iris would handle that.

"What?" Barry replied, his head snapping back up to Iris' image in the computer. "How is that possible?"

"I'm not sure. They're both alive." Iris said softly but Oliver got the sense that something wasn't quite right.

"Iris, what are you not telling us?" Oliver asked, knowing that he could get the answer that no one wanted to hear.

"Something's wrong with both of them. Cisco is awake but he won't stop shaking." Iris answered. "And they can't get Caitlin warm. Her body temperature has dropped so much. Even the temperature it's at now, she should be dead."

Looking down at Barry, Oliver couldn't get a read on how he was taking this. These were the two people that had been in on their secret for the longest. They had been there for every fight that had turned out poorly and for every victory.

Arguably they may have been closer to him than Iris ever was despite the fact that Barry would never say that.

"They need you back here, Barry." Iris pleaded. "Come home please."

"I will." Barry confirmed. "Once I've helped Oliver find his family, I'll be on my way back home."

Obviously, that was not the answer that Iris wanted. Thankfully, for Barry's sake, she wasn't going to fight him on it.

"Find them quick." Iris said before ending the transmission.

Iris may not have wanted to fight him on this but he wasn't going to get out of this so easily. As Barry stood to wander around the ArrowCave, Oliver laid into him.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Oliver snapped before looking at the other three people in the room. "Give us a bit."

"Oliver..." Ray said softly.

"It won't take long." Oliver ordered again.

"Let's get out of here." Snapper said softly before the three of them quickly retreated out of the ArrowCave.

Finally, it was just the two of them: The Green Arrow and The Flash. But right now, it was just Oliver and Barry.

And Oliver had a major beef with Barry.

"What's your problem?" Barry asked sharply.

"You're seriously asking me that question?" Oliver said, almost mocking him. "Your two best friends are laying in STAR Labs on the verge of dead and you're going to stay here."

"I told you I was going to help you find your family." Barry said, an entire lack of emotion in his voice. "I keep my promises."

"Bullshit." Oliver countered. "I'm telling you to go home."

"You're not my boss, Oliver."

"This is my home, this is my family." Oliver reminded him. "If I don't want someone here, they go."

"You don't scare me." Barry countered.

"I'm not trying to scare you. I'm trying to get you to go home to your family." Oliver said softly. "Caitlin and Cisco need you more than I do."

"What good am I going to do for them there?" Barry said, snapping back at Oliver. "They're going to be comatose and I'm just going to watch them."

"You do realize that's what they did for nine months after you got struck by lightning, right?"

"That was their job."

"Maybe. But is it their job to pick you back up when Gorilla Grodd flattens you or to help pick off the dead skin so you can heal when Heatwave attacks."

"How do you know about that?" Barry asked curiously.

"I know that because one member of your team is in love with you, Barry!" Oliver shouted. "Every time she would call me to talk, she would have some story of hope. Sometime when it was just the two of you and she thought that for a glimmer of a second that the two of you could work. They've both given up everything to help you. Do you realize what they've done for you? Do you really understand what  _she's_ done for you?"

"How could I not understand!?"

Finally, Oliver saw what this was. Somewhere along the lines, Oliver had severely misinterpreted everything. This wasn't a lack of caring. In fact, it was quite the opposite.

"You love her."

"I-you..." Barry started and stopped softly before finally finding his footing. "I don't know what it is. I know that there's something there. I know that she's never been freaked out by the prospect of my aging. She didn't know the Barry before the lightning strike so she accepts me just as I am."

"Like Felicity." Oliver muttered. "Felicity would have slapped the old me more times than I could count."

Walking up to Barry, Oliver realized just how similar their stories were. Both had been a relatively normal person prior to an event that changed their life forever. They had survived a crucible and came out the other side, changed forever.

Both of them had tried to live their old life for a time before realizing that it just wasn't going to work. For Oliver, this meant letting go of Laurel.

For Barry, maybe it should have meant letting go of Iris. Instead, he married her.

"Do you think I made a mistake marrying Iris?" Barry asked as if reading his mind.

"What do you think?"

"I'm asking you for a reason, Oliver."

Oliver had to think very hard about what to say. In truth, he had never been fully supportive of Iris for Barry. The fact that she had spent years oblivious to his true feelings about her said something to him. When someone had pointed out Felicity's feeling for him, he had instantly noticed.

When someone had pointed out Barry's feelings for Iris, she had ignored them, telling people that there was just no way. She said it would have been weird.

Everyone knew it except her.

On the flip side, Caitlin Snow had been engaged to someone who had died. According to Barry, she had started off very icy towards Barry, true to her namesake. However, she had started to come around and within a year, she had revealed to Oliver her true feelings for Barry.

She had the choice of anyone in the world and she chose him. She ignored the fact that he would probably never reciprocate her feelings and that he was solely focused on Iris. She ignored the fact that he would outlive her by a few decades. She even continued to ignore both these facts when they discovered that Ronnie was alive.

She had admitted to Oliver just how poor her attempt to reconcile with Ronnie was. Every time she was with him, she imagined Barry. Every time he spoke, she wished it had been Barry's voice.

She was kind, selfless, brilliant and invested in Barry Allen in a way that Iris had never been. But Oliver was aware that just because he saw Caitlin as Barry's perfect partner didn't mean that was the way things were supposed to be.

"I think it's only a mistake if you stayed married to Iris because you feel like you have to." Oliver answered cryptically before explaining. "If you still love her, by all means, fight for her. But if I'm being honest, there's someone out there who I believe better for you and she needs you right now."

"Dammit." Barry cursed. "I figured you were going to say that."

Marching up to Barry, Oliver came face-to-face with one of his best friends in the world.

"I'm here and I'm not alone. I've got Ray, Snapper and Cole. Here the things, Barry: I'm in charge of protecting mine and you're in charge of protecting yours. This is when protecting yours becomes your main priority. Now, go. Be there when she wakes up."

The look of appreciation on Barry's face was palpable. Reaching forward, Barry extended his hand.

"Thanks, Oliver."

"Brothers don't shake hands." Oliver said simply before pulling the younger man in for a hug. "Don't try and deal with it all at once. Caitlin and Cisco need you first. Once you've got that handled, then you can talk to Iris."

"Yeah."

"And know that I'm here if you need me."

"Same to you." Barry replied before reaching down and grabbing his phone. "Suppose I should get moving."

"Yeah, you should."

At that very moment, a Barry Allen-shaped blur raced out of the door of the ArrowCave and back to Central City.

He just hoped that Barry would find the happiness he was looking for when he got there.

* * *

_**18 hours to deadline** _

While Snapper and Cole worked on trying to track down the van with the local security feeds, Ray and Oliver worked tirelessly to obtain access to the Federal Security Database. If they were caught, they would be in a nursing home before they would be allowed out of jail.

Worth the risk in Oliver's mind.

As they did, they received a transmission from Barry.

"How are they doing?" Oliver asked without looking up from his work.

 _"Somehow they're both alive."_ Barry said in awe.  _"But we can't seem to get Cisco to hold still and Caitlin's body temperature is holding steady at 68 degrees."_

"I may not be a scientist but that doesn't sound good."

"It isn't." Ray replied before going back to his work.

"Well then it's good that you're there for them." Oliver replied, keeping the tone in his voice as soft as possible.

"Here for them, yeah." Barry replied, suddenly absentminded.

"Barry?"

"Iris handed me these." Barry said as he lifted a collection of papers into the frame. Oliver couldn't read the print but he knew exactly what they were.

"I'm sorry, Barry."

"I guess being the husband to a superhero that doesn't age can get to you."

"Focus on Caitlin." Oliver instructed. "She's the one that needs you right now."

"Yeah..." Barry said softly. "Thanks for telling me to come back by the way."

"I always know what's best." Oliver joked.

"Sure." Barry replied before waving and ending the transmission.

"Do you think they'll actually go through with a divorce?" Ray asked. "I've only met Iris a few times but she seems nice."

"She is." Oliver confirmed. "Wait a minute, you've met Iris?"

"Barry Allen is slowly becoming one of the world's most renown scientists in the field of forensics. Queen Consolidate has been looking to acquire his services since the day I took over. I was able to get him in on some interviews but they never went anywhere. Now, I know why."

"Yeah, he's never leaving Central City."

"Just like you're never leaving Starling." Ray retorted.

"Exactly." Oliver said before motioning to Ray. "You've been at that pretty hard. Let's go upstairs and get some food."

"I can keep working." Ray said, his focus firmly on the task at hand.

"Everyone else keeps telling me that I need to take breaks because if I'm not at the top of my game, then we aren't going to succeed." Oliver replied. "If that's the case, then I need my support to be at the top of their game as well."

Looking up, Ray viewed Oliver skeptically.

"Plus, I'm starving." Oliver said going for a bit of levity before walking off towards the stairs. Seconds later, Oliver felt the presence of Ray following him up the stairs. After they cleared the hallway, they walked the length of the first floor to get to the more private of the two kitchens.

After all, they didn't really want to be seen and especially not overheard. Walking in, Oliver went to the fridge which was stocked with his usual collection of cold cuts.

Basically, it was the only meal that he could consistently make for himself. Divvying up the bread, meat and cheese, Oliver quickly made a collection of sandwiches before the the two billionaires sat on the stools at the bar.

For a few minutes, the pair were silent as they enjoy the simplicity of their meal and the lack of "cave" in their current atmosphere.

Finally, Ray had something to bring to Oliver's attention.

"I upgraded A.T.O.M."

"Really?" Oliver said in surprise. "How so?"

"Well, most of the adjustments made the battery of the exosuit more suitably to long term use rather than simply being out and about for a few hours. Others include a better HUD interface that gives me more information while blocking less of my vision, a couple changes were made to the burst packs in the boots and the electroblaster in the right gauntlet."

"You really expect me to know what all of that means?" Oliver asked evenly.

"No. Plus, that wasn't the upgrade that I wanted to tell you about." Ray replied. "It was the upgrade that necessitated all of those changes."

"And that is?"

"I've finally managed to get the shrinking ability to work without permanently damaging me."

"I thought we discussed this, Ray."

They had. On several occasions. Oliver wasn't willing to put Ray's life on the line in that kind of way. Oliver had no idea how the science worked but he knew that it was risky and that there had to be other ways for Ray to feel as though he could make a difference.

"We did. But that was before I did a field test."

"You did what?" Oliver asked. "Ray, I didn't think I could be more clear."

"Yes, but I mean it's my body." Ray replied. "I'm the one risking my life to make it work."

"You forget that you're doing it with my technology and working for a company that I own." Oliver growled. "When I said no, I was saying it as Oliver Queen, Mayor of Starling City, The Green Arrow and majority shareholder in Queen Consolidated LLC. I should fire you right now."

The look on Ray's face was not the one Oliver expected. Instead of fear for his job or terror at what Oliver could do for him, Ray looked bored.

"I've taken Queen Consolidated to places that you've never dream. Fire me and you'll lose every ounce of support that your decision to hire me earned you in the first place." Ray snapped before adding. "Also, you forget that I know who you are."

"You also forget that while I don't like the idea of killing people, I will do it to protect my family."

"Fair point." Ray replied, realizing that maybe threatening Oliver Queen was not the best idea he'd had. "It's a technology that the company will benefit from and so will I as The Atom."

"It's a technology that no company should touch and for good reason. Sure, it works until one day, one of the human test subjects is now stuck at the size of an action figure."

"You're being overdramatic."

"How long did you spend in miniature form?" Oliver asked. "Do you know what the side effects are? How long can you be small before it damages you? Will it damage you right away? Is it safe for everyone or just people in the kind of shape that you and I are in? Did you think of a single one of these questions or did you just press the button?"

Finally, Oliver saw that Ray saw just how serious Oliver was about this. This company and its products were his family's legacy. He wasn't about to lose it because some hotshot CEO wanted to turn himself into some "Amazing Ant-Man."

"I thought of some of those." Ray admitted. "But not all."

"You tested it on something living before you, right?"

"I did."

"What happened to it?"

"It died within minutes." Ray said softly, his eyes closed. "But I figured out and fixed the issue."

"So you tried it again on the same kind of living creature before you tried it on yourself, right?"

Oliver got the answer he had been expecting.

"No."

"Are you insane?" Oliver shouted as he got up to pace the room. "Did you think of anything? Did you write your will before you decided to be one of the stupidest geniuses known to mankind?"

"Being who I am means taking risks, Oliver." Ray countered. "You're a genius of sorts too. I watch you fight and I see a savant. I see someone who understand the body language of the person across from them so well that they can see the next three attacks coming before their opponent even knows what they're going to do."

"Maybe I am." Oliver said softly. "But I don't take risks with things I don't understand."

"This is something that you don't understand." Ray offered. "I understand it perfectly."

On that, Oliver had to give the man credit. He was every bit the genius that he had been portrayed to be by everyone that Oliver had talked to about him.

"Fair point." Oliver admitted before offering up a bit of a compromise. "There will be no next for this. You will remove that capability from the A.T.O.M. and we will test it much more thoroughly. Over time, I've come to support you becoming The Atom. However, you do this the right way or not at all."

"I suppose that's fair." Ray admitted. "I am sorry for testing it without your approval."

"Sorry doesn't buy me anything, Ray. Just make sure that the next time you do it, it's been tested so thoroughly that the very concept of a thought of a problem is zero."

"Done."

As Ray spoke, the doorbell rang. Normally, someone else would have answered the door. However, the moment that Oliver had resigned as Mayor, he had sent all of staff home. The only people that remained were those that guarded the house from the outside. Even the guards on the inside had been sent home.

Secretly, Oliver hoped that whoever had taken his family would see an opening and attack. Not only would that give him the ability to let off some steam but if he was able to capture one of the men who attacked, there was a possibility he may be able to get some information.

Unfortunately, that hadn't happened.

"Head back down to the ArrowCave." Oliver said softly as he walked out of the kitchen. Marching his way to the front door, Oliver opened the door to come face-to-face with someone he could never have expected to visit his house.

"Colonel." Oliver said softly.

That Colonel was Lt. Colonel Steven A. Trevor, a United States war hero and the new head of ARGUS. Obviously, this was a man that preferred the dark to the light so the fact that he was standing on his front doorstep meant something big.

"Oliver." Trevor replied, his voice a deep bark from years of giving orders. "May I come inside?"

"I suppose." Oliver said before turning and leaving Trevor at the door. Taking a few quick steps, Oliver made his way to the closest study before closing the door behind the two of them.

Whatever Trevor wanted was not something for the rest of the world to hear.

"What can I do for you, Colonel." Oliver asked as he took a seat.

"First, I would like to say that I was sorry to hear of your resignation." Trevor said politely. "You were good for this city."

"Did you vote for me?"

"No." was Trevor's reply. Not that he should have expected that. A military man like Trevor was not one to vote for someone has publicly against violence and crime as Oliver Queen.

"So you voted for Maxwell Lord, then?" Oliver mused. "Most of his policies focused on lowering the already insanely low crime rate within our city. Seems like a man after your own heart."

"I voted for Donner." Trevor admitted evenly. "I didn't think you had the brains to do it and I thought that Lord's hair was too slimey with the money of the mob."

"Seems fair." Oliver replied before leveling with the man. "I doubt you came to talk about my resigning."

"You are correct." Trevor replied before reaching into his briefcase and pulling out a file and handing it to Oliver. "Have you ever heard of Checkmate?"

"Of course." Oliver replied. "I was one of the first agents that Waller tried to recruit for it."

"Then you'll know that team dealt with threats that were darker and deeper than any that a standard ARGUS agent dealt with." Trevor said before pointing at the file in front of him. "This is why Waller was killed."

Opening the file, Oliver started to read. What he was reading was unbelievable.

"You're sure?"

"Absolutely." Trevor answered firmly. "Someone has created an expanding AI, one that learns and grows. At some point within the last year, that AI started probing the computer systems of every government in the world. Six months ago, it was firmly entrenched in most of the third world's government systems. Last month, it started working its way into computer systems from Italy, Russia, Australia, Brazil and France and a week ago, it started going after the three big dogs, The United States, China and Japan."

"What's it doing?"

"That's the thing." Trevor said, suddenly uncertain. "It isn't doing anything. It probes its way into the system then just sits there, defending off attack from any cyber police in the world. Countries have slowly be releasing some of the world's most dangerous hackers to try and fight this off."

This all sounded bad but it also confused Oliver a bit.

"What does this have to with me?" Oliver asked.

"Last week, your family disappears." Trevor says sadly. "Suddenly, this AI attempts to break into the US system. Now, if your family is out and about and this happens, I call your girlfriend in."

"Not surprising."

"Not at all. Worldwide, the hacker known as Sentry is one of the best in the world. Only a few of the smartest people in the world even have a chance of holding their own against her and a smaller group still have been able to ascertain her identity. Thankfully for you, most of those people are people like Bruce Wayne, people on your side."

"I guess." Oliver replied softly. "So you think there's some kind of connection?"

Trevor chuckled deeply at Oliver's question.

"As The Green Arrow, you are widely respected as one of the best at reading situations. Now, take your family out of the equation. The world's most elite hacker disappears and the next day, a threat that she alone is equipped to handle is launched against our government. Doesn't that seem a bit convenient to you?"

"So whoever took my family is connected to this AI." Oliver said, finishing the story. "Have you been able to trace the AI?"

"No. That's what Waller was working on. We think that she figured out where it was coming from."

"That's why she's dead."

"Exactly." Trevor said, connecting the dots. "Currently, we're working around the clock to keep it out of our system but without Felicity Smoak, it's a fight we cannot win."

"So you're looking for her too, I take it?" Oliver asked. "Do you have any information that I need?"

"Unfortunately, Oliver, our organization is not quite as big as it seems." Trevor said, a tone of apology in his voice. "Currently, the entirety of the Checkmate and Task Force X programs are focused at locating the source of this AI. With that, most of our best agents go with them. We do have a team focused on trying to locate Ms. Smoak but right now, I don't think there's any way that they are as far along as you are."

"How could you know that?"

"Because I know that you have had The Flash, Ray Palmer, Cole Nash and Lucas "Snapper" Carr in your basement for varying lengths of time for the last few days with Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson here before them. You have some exceptional friends, Mr. Queen. Keep using them. We're going to do everything we can on our end but we have to look at the larger picture."

"Keep that AI out of the system." Oliver ordered. "If it gets in, then we can't get what we need."

"There's also this." Trevor said before handing Oliver a flash drive. "That's not going to get you into the Federal Security Database but it will make it a little bit easier. I can only contribute to the felonies of billionaires in so many ways."

"Thank you, Colonel." Oliver said as he stood and shook Colonel Trevor's hand.

"Find your family, Oliver. We're going to need Felicity Smoak before all of this is over."

* * *

_**15 hours to deadline** _

After Colonel Trevor had left, Oliver had gone back downstairs to see where Ray was at in hacking the FSD. Unfortunately, he had reached a point of no return and that meant a lot of incredibly challenging code. Thankfully for him, he had Felicity's programming to assist him. But this meant that it was passed Oliver's expertise level, leaving Ray to finish the task alone.

Looking at the clock in the far corner of the room, Oliver realized it had been nearly twenty hours since he'd tried to sleep. Despite the fact that he assumed that he would just stare at the ceiling, Oliver excused himself and made his way up to his bedroom for the first time since Felicity had disappeared.

Laying down, Oliver did his best to sleep. However, just as he anticipated, his mind wandered instead. While it did, Oliver suddenly found himself latching onto one thought, one hypothetical that would have changed everything.

On that evening when he confronted his mother at Queen Tower, what would have happened if he had done the first thing that had popped into his brain? Jumping into the back of Felicity's car had been his second choice, one that he had taken for fear of his mother hearing his own voice or the voice of his driver.

Because Oliver's first choice had been to call in Diggle. What would have happened if Felicity Smoak had never been added to his vendetta? The first answer was the easiest.

He would be dead. Walter Steele would be dead. The entirety of the Glades would have been crushed by The Undertaking and Starling City would have been Malcolm Merlyn's to mold.

Unfortunately, this also meant that Diggle would already be dead. With one of Oliver's missteps and his own death, he had a sneaking suspicion that Diggle would have worn the Hood. But without any back-up and support, he probably would have gone the same route as Oliver, dying in the line of duty.

Maybe he would have survived through The Undertaking but without Felicity Smoak, Oliver doesn't come back from Lian Yu. Instead, he returns to the island and lives his remaining days there. It's likely that Slade would have caught up with him there and put an end to his life there instead of attacking Starling City.

It was amazing to think just how much of a difference Felicity had on all of them. When they had first started, Oliver had been dark and vengeful, Diggle had been angry and distant. Now, the three of them were more a family than any of one of them could have ever imagined possible.

This line of thinking led him to somewhere deeper in his past: What if he had just moved in with Laurel instead of going on The Queen's Gambit with Sara? More than likely, Sara would still be alive and Quentin Lance would also be alive. Oliver would have been pegged as his father's replacement from the start and he would probably still be working at QC under the thumb of his still living mother. He would have never met Felicity Smoak or John Diggle and he probably would have progressed along the same path that he had taken before the island.

How many things in his life had been changed my one immature decision? Looking back though, Oliver realized that those changes had turned into a life of meaning. The old Ollie would have wanted to see how many nightclubs he could visit in one night or how many supermodels he could bed in a week. Oliver Queen was devoted to saving lives, one way or another.

His life had not been easy since the Queen's Gambit. Far from it, in fact. However, he wouldn't trade it for anything. He had met a family that was better than any he could have dreamed of and met the woman who had changed his life. Without her, he would either be dead, in jail or loose on the streets, no better than any other common murderer.

As Oliver drifted off to sleep, the image of Felicity Smoak, red pen in her mouth, at her desk was burned into his mind. Back then, Oliver had no idea how a woman like her would change his life.

Now, he was going to do everything he could to get that woman back because without her, he wasn't The Green Arrow or Oliver Queen.

He was just Ollie and Oliver had worked hard to bury him.

* * *

_**14 hours to deadline** _

After waking up, Oliver had spent about ten minutes watching as Ray continued to plow his way through the FSD system so that they could track the vans leaving Starling City. Apparently, while Oliver had been asleep, Snapper had continued to watch the video footage and noticed that all three vehicles (Felicity's, Diggle's family and the vehicle with the stolen radio) had taken different routes but all ended up leaving Starling City the same way headed east.

This was just another hint that they were somewhere on the eastern half of the country. Unfortunately, none of those hints were narrowing down their search area. That was hopefully something that Ray would be able to do with access to the FSD.

However, after ten minutes, Oliver couldn't take the waiting anymore. In an instant, he stood from his seat and made his way over to Snapper.

"You have access to the entire city right now, correct?" Oliver asked.

"Yeah, man. Why?"

"Because you're playing the role of Felicity Smoak tonight." Oliver replied before turning to Ray. "Keep at it, I'm going on patrols."

"You're sure that's a good idea?" Ray asked.

"Why wouldn't it be?" Oliver asked, answering a question with another.

"Because you're distracted." Ray said simply. "You can't tell me that you're in the right state of mind to go out there and be The Green Arrow right now."

Unfortunately, Oliver knew that he was right. He was bored and restless and that wasn't a good combination. Just as he was ready to give in and stay, Cole stepped forward.

"I'll go out with him."

"What?" Ray said softly. "I know that you are a security guard for the Mayor but that doesn't make you a vigilante."

"I was a soldier before I was any of that, Mr. Palmer." Cole shot back before turning to Oliver. "I may not be John Diggle but I'll cover you while you're out there. There's nothing out there tonight that's going to hit us as hard as some of the stuff I saw in Iraq."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that." Oliver mused. "Are you sure you want to do this? I don't have time to train you before you go out there."

"If you give me two guns and some body armor, I've got your back."

Instantly, Diggle's armor popped into Oliver's head. He really didn't like just handing the armor over to Cole for several reasons. First, he hadn't earned it and second, he barely knew the man. However, the city hadn't seen The Green Arrow in weeks and an appearance by both The Hood and The Green Arrow would put Starling City at ease.

He really didn't like this but it was something that needed to be done. Pointing at Diggle's armor on display, Oliver had a simple set of instructions for him.

"Suit up."

Within minutes, the pair of them were dressed and ready. Ten minutes later, The Green Arrow and The Hood, albeit with a different person underneath it, were out on patrols. For nearly twenty minutes, they just drove around town, making their presence felt throughout the city. Finally, they caught a man sprinting down the street, an entire cash register under his arm.

Smirking at the stupidity of some people, Oliver drove up next to the thief, shouting out to him as he rolled next to him.

"Are you going to keep running or are you just going to give up?" Oliver joked as the thief noticed who it was riding by him. In a split second, the thief made a decision, dropping the cash register and running in the opposite direction.

"Hood, you got him?"

 _"I got him."_ was Cole's response. Suddenly, Cole stepped out from behind a building and threw a single punch that knocked the thief out. Leaning down, Cole slapped a pair of handcuffs on the man's arm before attaching the other end to a bench nearby. As he finished that, he looked up at a couple of pedestrians walking by.  _"Would you mind calling the police?"_

Chuckling, Oliver watched as Cole made his way towards him.

"Let's park our bikes. We'll do the rest of this on foot."

* * *

Twenty minutes later, the pair of them were standing on the same rooftop that Oliver had stopped on the night he had decided to retire. Looking out over the city, Oliver couldn't have imagined how much things were going to change after that night.

And none of it had to do with The Green Arrow.

"So you've been doing this since you came back?" Cole asked as he caught up with Oliver, his breath just a bit heavy.

"Yeah. I started officially about two weeks after I got back from the island."

"So like six years?"

"Seven this October." Oliver said softly. "Why do you ask?"

"I just was thinking that you got elected in November. That was right around the time that the sightings of The Green Arrow started to go down."

"I was working my way out." Oliver replied. "The night before my family was taken, I had made the decision to retire."

"Why?"

"I'd been doing it for that long. I was ready to settle down. I wanted a family and I felt that I couldn't be The Green Arrow and Oliver Queen familyman at the same time."

"How did the future Mrs. Queen take that? I'm assuming, based on how much you all talk about her, that she was in on your secret."

"She did not take it well. And yes, she knew. She was the heart of our team." Oliver said softly. "In the beginning, it was just me. Then, I brought John in on my secret. But it was when we brought Felicity in, when  _I_ brought Felicity in, that's when all this really started to take shape."

Oliver turned around to face Cole and realized that for the first time in years, there was someone that had been brought in on the secret that didn't really know much of any of this. He had just figured out who Oliver's alter ego was. That didn't mean that he actually knew who Oliver Queen was.

"When I first started, they called me The Vigilante, The Archer, The Hood." Oliver said as he made his way to the other side of the building, looking up on the city towards Queen Mansion. "Those are the names of a criminal. That's what I was. I had a good reason but my actions were criminal. There's no other way to look at it. But when Felicity came in, she made me realize that there may be another way to do it."

"I always like Ms. Smoak. She seemed...fiery." Cole commented.

"You have no idea." Oliver jested. "We've been together for over two years now and friends for just over six. We're both fairly aggressive people so when we got angry at each other, things got heated. There were a couple of times that I thought she was going to take a swing at me."

"Would you have deserved it?"

"Most definitely." Oliver chuckled. "I'm very good at what I do, John is very good at what he does. The Red Arrow and Arsenal are also very good. But I don't think any of us are as exceptional as she is being herself. I've been doing this for as long as I have simply because she is literally the best. Without her, I'd be dead ten times over."

"So basically, you were quitting so you could be with her?" Cole questioned.

"Is that so bad?" Oliver asked. "I've been doing this for a long time. Is it so bad that I should want to be happy and safe?"

"I wouldn't blame you. But think about the world we live in. Would it be safer with or without The Green Arrow? Maybe you take a step back, go out every other night or something? But I think the world's changed from what it used to be. We need people like you, Oliver. I think Ms. Smoak understood that and based on the look you're giving me, I think you understand that too."

Somewhere deep down, he agreed with Cole. He didn't want to. He  _desperately_ didn't want to but he knew the man was right. Slowly, Oliver nodded his head in agreement despite his wishes.

"I just wanted to be able to have a family with her." Oliver said, almost as if it were a prayer. "I wanted a family and I didn't want to worry about whether or not I was going to come back to them alive."

"Think about it this way, Oliver." Cole started. "If you just quit and sit by when you have the ability to help, what does that tell any children you might have? Sure, there's a risk but that risk is worth it. We put ourselves on the line because there are good people out there and there are bad people and those good people need protection from the bad. Yes, it means we may not come home to our families one day. But, while there would initially be sadness, your kids would eventually understand that you did what you did to make a difference."

"You really think a child would understand that?" Oliver asked. "If your father had disappeared on you one day with no explanation, you would have understood one day."

"My father was killed in Desert Storm." Cole said softly. "He was twenty-six and he and my mother had me when they were both twenty-one. One day, he just disappeared. I was too young to remember why at the time but then I just remember that he never came back. Even when I was old enough to understand what had happened, I was angry. But then, when I was about sixteen myself, I saw a kid, about thirteen, getting beaten up by a group of seniors. Being the idiot I am, I tried to take them all on."

"What happened?"

"They broke my nose and three fingers." Cole chuckled. "But that kid never forgot that I stood up for him that day. In that moment, bruised and beaten, I watched that kid get up and run to get help. If they had continued on him, he probably wouldn't have been able to do that."

"You saved him." Oliver said softly. "It felt good, didn't it?"

"I understood why my dad had done what I did. I was and still am sad that he didn't get to be around when I was growing up. But, I know that hundreds of kids got to have their parents with them as they grew up in exchange for mine. I decided later that week to join the military when I was of age."

"Seems like you made the right decision." Oliver smirked before looking down at this watch. "Let's get moving. We've got some more ground to cover."

"Just remember: this city still needs you, Oliver."

"I doubt I'll forget."


	13. Breakthrough

**13 hours to deadline**

Oliver and Cole were in the midst of cleaning up after their fourth brawl in the last hour when Ray popped in over the comms.

_"Atom to GA. Atom to GA."_

"Go." Oliver said softly as he tied the last thug to a tree. Apparently, this group thought it was alright to chase after frightened and lost children in the middle of Starling Park late in the evening.

Thankfully, Oliver and Cole had been able to teach them differently.

_"How are things going out there?"_

"Fine." Oliver replied. "How the FSD coming?"

 _"It should be done within the hour."_ Ray answered.  _"However, that isn't why I called. Wayne is calling."_

"Again?" Oliver shot back, not bothering to hide the annoyance in his voice. "Did he say what he wanted?"

_"What do you think?"_

"Figures." Oliver growled. "Put him through."

For a few seconds after that, the line went dead. Finally, Oliver heard the voice of the Caped Crusader come through the channel. However, it was very different than normal. Instead of the firm strength that Wayne's voice normally portrayed, this sounded weak and thin.

_"Queen."_

"Batman, what can I do for you?" Oliver said as he raced out of the park and back towards the rest of the city with Cole on his tail.

_"I'm calling to inform you that the procedure worked."_

Instantly, Oliver came to a crashing halt with Cole nearly running into him from behind.

"Already?"

_"I'm as shocked as you are. It's still going to be a few months of physical therapy and training to get back to where I was at before but I can walk."_

"And there are no side effects to this?"

_"Queen, we're dealing with alien tech on human physiology. It honestly could do anything. I could turn into Clark or I could sprout tumors at any moment. Either way, this was the only choice I had."_

"If you say so." Oliver replied before continuing on. "So, you're going to be able to reclaim the cowl."

_"Eventually. However, Dick has agreed to cover for me in the short term."_

"And in the long term? What are your plans for that?"

_"No idea. I know that I'm going to start training and figure out this drone signal before I do anything. But with this being the longest I've been out of commission since I've started, it seems like a good idea to start over, get a fresh start."_

"You're speaking in code, Wayne." Oliver shot back, annoyed. "Just say whatever you're trying to say."

_"I'm saying that even when I return to full health, I may not be in Gotham to take back the cowl."_

Well, this certainly was news.

"Where are you going?"

_"I was gone for ten years but I only spent one of it with Ra's. I had other teachers, other mentors during my time abroad. I think one or two of them could help me regain my form."_

"So Bruce Wayne is just going to disappear again?" Oliver asked. "At exactly the same time that there's a new Batman out there. Don't tell me that no one is going to notice. I've fought you and watched Dick fight and the two of you couldn't be more different if you tried. Someone will make the connection."

_"It's a risk I'll have to take."_

"And your support of The League? Will that change as well?"

_"Dick will carry my vote for any matters that need it."_

Despite the fact that Oliver held a severe dislike for this man, he could help but feel sorry for him. Bruce Wayne was obviously lost. Just like Oliver, he wasn't one to be handed defeat very often and especially not in the brutal and humiliating way in which he had. If there was ever a time when Bruce Wayne may doubt his mission, this would be it. It made sense for him to take some space and reset.

Either he would come back a new person and seek to make Batman even better.

Or he would lose faith and the mission would fail entirely.

"I hope you find what you're looking for."

_"Same to you."_

With that, the line went dead and Oliver's brain went into overdrive. Honestly, Oliver could remember such a confusing person and he lived with Felicity Smoak on a daily basis. Sometimes, Wayne was brutal, cruel, selfish. Others, he was caring, honest and even friendly. Despite all of the time that Oliver had spent with The Dark Knight, he still couldn't anticipate when he was going to be one or the other.

All in all, it made it very difficult for Oliver to settle in on how he felt about him. On one side, Oliver respected the man for the morals that he held and the discipline required to do what he did. On the other hand, Oliver hated just about everything to do with the pompous, arrogant and vile man that sometimes hid under the cowl.

Needless to say, there was nothing simple about Bruce Wayne.

"So what are we doing now?" Cole asked as he approached Oliver.

"You're heading back to the ArrowCave." Oliver replied simply.

"And what are you doing?"

"I'm going to go visit a friend." Oliver answered cryptically. As much as Oliver liked and even trusted Cole, this wasn't for him to know. Not yet anyway.

"OK, I'll head back. You'll message if you need something, right?"

"If I need something." Oliver repeated absentmindedly.

With that, Cole took off, racing back towards where the pair of them had parked their bikes earlier in the evening. Once he was out of sight, Oliver took off in the opposite direction.

He wasn't really visiting a friend but Cole definitely didn't need to know that. Instead, he raced towards downtown, leaping from rooftop to rooftop on the way to his target. Finally, Oliver reached a building that overlooked his target, the Robert Queen Memorial.

Built on the one year anniversary of Oliver's battle with Ra's al Ghul, it was Oliver's lasting contribution to the city. For years, Oliver had felt some kind of hole in his stomach and he wasn't exactly sure why. But in the wake of the League of Assassins, Oliver saw clearly for the first time in years. When Slade had attacked Starling City, Felicity had activated a plan that blew up the Robert Queen Applied Sciences Division.

Literally, Oliver had blown up his family's own mark on the city.

Then, a year after the battle with Ra's, Oliver realized that for all the great things that Robert Queen had done for Starling City, there was not a single thing commemorating his achievements. So, on the front steps of Queen Tower, Oliver had built the Robert Queen Memorial. It was actually more like a small city park than a true memorial but Oliver knew that's how his father would have preferred it. Robert was not a man for the limelight. Instead, he let his actions do the talking.

That's basically what this memorial had done. The process of it had created over 100 jobs for the city and add a sense of wildlife and greenery to the concrete jungle that was downtown Starling City. It also reminded Oliver just a bit of the island, the place where his father rested permanently.

Over the years, Oliver had considered moving his father's body but it never seemed right. His father had given his life for him and Oliver felt that Robert had found some sense of peace on that island, far away from the machinations of Malcolm Merlyn and his mother.

"Hey Dad." Oliver whispered softly. "I know that if there's something after this life, that Mom is there with you now. Know that I never wanted either of you to sacrifice yourself for me and I definitely didn't want you killed because of something I had done in my past."

Smiling softly, Oliver thought about his mother and father, finally together again. If there was one happy thought that Oliver could ream out of this situation, it was that.

"I need to stop whoever it is that's doing this." Oliver continued, this time with a deep growl in his voice. "If they kill Roy, Thea will never forgive me and I won't blame her. Even if she does forgive me, it will be my fault that she'll live the rest of her life without Roy. But it's what Roy means to me too. I know that we didn't see eye to eye for a long time but things have changed. Roy is as much a brother to me as Tommy ever was."

Oliver slowly realized that tears that he had fought to hide for days now were pouring out of his eyes. Rather than stop them or hide his grief anymore, Oliver let it out.

"I couldn't save Lyla." Oliver said, the words barely slipping out of his mouth. I couldn't save Mom. I couldn't save Shado or Sara or Slade or Quentin. I couldn't save  _Tommy,_ my best friend for all that means. They're all dead because I was too slow or not strong enough."

Suddenly, Oliver chuckled to himself.

"I know that's not entirely true." he admitted softly. "In fact, if Felicity were here, she probably would have hit me in the head several times for even thinking it. Still, I can't help but think that maybe if those people aren't around me, they may still be living."

It was this line of thinking that often betrayed the new found confidence that Oliver typically portrayed. On the nights when the dreams turned to nightmares and it became too much for him to handle, all he could think of was the guilt and the question of whether or not he was good for the people around him.

They would certainly assure him that he was but there was a lot of proof that he wasn't.

"It's funny. The Queens were never really known for having a lot of family." Oliver mused aloud. "Sure, there was the four of us but that was about it. Both of you were single children who were born to parents who were already well into their forties when you were born. I have no aunts, uncles or cousins to speak of. We had you, me, Mom and Thea. We were happy, a bit dysfunctional at times, but happy. But when you have such a small family, your friends take on a greater meaning."

Instantly, images of his "friends" flashed into his mind. Over time, they had become something more.

"Tommy wasn't my friend, he was my brother. Lyla, a sister. Diggle...well, John, is just about the best brother anyone could ever have." Oliver said, chuckling to himself. "Roy and I started off rough but he really is like a younger brother. I don't have much of a choice because I imagine that he and Thea are going to get married any day now."

Slowly, Oliver's mind delved even deeper, resting on the three women in his life.

"I still don't know how Laurel and I haven't killed each other. There's no way we should be friends, not after everything I put her through. She's literally been the only constant in my life since I was five years old. Not even Thea's been around that long."

Thea.

"You'd be so proud of her, Dad." Oliver whispered. "She had a rough time after we disappeared and she can still be pretty rough around the edges now. But she's got more life in her than almost anyone I know and she may care about the world more than even I do. The things that she's done for Keystone in such a short period of time is amazing. I'd never tell her this but she reminds me a bit of Mom but without the ability to lie...to anyone."

However, it was the last person that flashed into his mind that nearly caused him to break down.

"She's my everything."

It was all Oliver had to say. He could have spoken to anyone, anywhere for hours about Felicity Smoak but it was pointless. The fact remained that without Felicity Smoak, Oliver Queen never retains Queen Consolidated, he never defeats Malcolm Merlyn, Slade Wilson or Ra's al Ghul. He dies an early death.

But most importantly, without Felicity Smoak, Oliver Queen never truly returns from the island. A man simply would have remained masquerading around Starling City in the skin of Oliver Queen. The Hood would have used Oliver Queen's friends and family and would have died a brutal and lonely death.

Instead, The Green Arrow and Oliver Queen more or less coexisted, at least until recently. But he was still alive and for the most part happy, the current circumstances not withstanding.

_"Oliver."_

"Ray." Oliver muttered, shaken from his mental conversation with his father. "What do you have?"

 _"A phone call from a Donna Smoak."_ Ray said evenly, knowing exactly who that was.  _"Should I patch it through?"_

"Do that." Oliver said evenly before turning off his voice distorter.

Oliver had called Felicity's mother the moment after he had given his first press conference about the subject. His message had been simple: he would do everything to find her but she needed to stay in Vegas. For the time being, she seemed okay with that arrangement.

Something told him that had changed.

"Donna." Oliver said, reverting to his usual tone, something he rarely did while wearing his Arrow gear.

 _"Oliver, how are you holding up?"_ Donna asked evenly.

"I've been better." Oliver chuckled honestly. "The SCPD are getting close to finding them."

_"Really? How so?"_

Of course. Trust the mother of the genius to start asking follow-up questions.

"Well, after scanning the evidence from John's house, they believe they can narrow down where they're being held to only a few places."

_"From evidence at the crime scene? Seems strange."_

"How so?" Oliver asked curiously.

 _"Well, on CSI, they wouldn't find that kind of thing. They would find where the people that took them had been."_ Donna said softly, almost as if thinking aloud before suddenly burst out.  _"Unless they came from the place where they took them! That would make sense, right? Wait, they probably wouldn't want to come from the same place they were going to hold them. That would be too easy to follow, right?"_

"I honestly have no idea." Oliver said, struggling not to laugh at the rambling that was obviously genetic on the maternal side of the Smoak family. "I'm not a forensic scientist."

 _"Former Mayor isn't bad, right?"_ Donna replied.  _"Anyway, I was thinking about what you said before-"_

"You want to come to Starling." Oliver said, finishing her thought. "Donna, we talked about this alre-"

_"I know we did but I still don't get it. When they get them out of wherever they're being held, why wouldn't Felicity want me there?"_

"I'm sure she would but when they do find them, there are going to be a couple days of debriefing by the police and then there's going to be enough publicity. We all know that Felicity hates that anyway. Just let us get through the first few days of her being back and then we'll fly you in, okay?"

 _"I like that you keep saying that we're going to get her back."_ Donna said suddenly.

"Why wouldn't we?"

_"Because that's not how these things end sometimes."_

"I promise on everything that I have, this one ends the way we want it to."

 _"I certainly hope so."_ Donna replied softly.  _"Alright, I need to go. Double shift coming up and if I'm late again, they're going to start docking my pay."_

"This will all be over soon." Oliver reassured her. "I will find them." The words were out of his mouth before he realized how they would sound.

 _"Huh?"_ Donna asked in confusion.

"I mean that I will do everything I can to help."

 _"Oh."_ Donna replied, accepting Oliver's strange explanation.  _"Make sure you're sleeping, Oliver. She's going to need you when this is all over. They all will."_

"And I'll be there for them."

_"Good. Bye, Oliver."_

"Goodbye, Donna." Oliver replied as he heard the line go dead. For another few minutes, Oliver simply stood and watched his city. It was fairly late in the evening and so the amount of noise and traffic was severely lessened than if he had been standing there in the middle of rush hour.

But it wasn't quiet. In a city the size of Starling City, quiet wasn't something you got. Sometimes, you got lucky and ended up with quieter but there was also just a buzz, a collection of random noises that ran at all hours of the day.

It was a soothing sound to Oliver Queen in this moment. For some reason, the thought that Starling City, despite all of the turmoil in his life, was still beating gave him hope. Because in the past, Starling City hadn't been quiet. Fires had raged, the ground broke and the cries and shouts of its terrified citizens screamed out into the night.

But now? It was as silent as it had ever been. Crime was lower than ever and the large scale threats it had faced in the past appeared to be well in the rearview mirror.

It gave Oliver hope that maybe this situation would end up being just like Slade's attack or Ra's' occupation was for Starling City. At least for him, he was hoping that he would just find his family and that while things would be crazy for a short period of time, it would eventually become just another past event, something that pushed them together and made them stronger.

But he knew this wouldn't be easy. If this was hard for Oliver, then it was several times harder for the rest of his family. He wasn't the ones that had been taken and held hostage, knowing that they were going to be executed if Oliver didn't work fast enough.

_"Green Arrow?"_

Ray's voice in his ear shook him from his thoughts on the city and back into the present.

"Go, Atom."

 _"I'm in."_ Ray said shortly.  _"I've got full access and I'm running the appropriate traces to track the vans."_

"How long?"

_"Long enough. I've started back-tracing the transmissions we've received. We got lucky, Oliver. Whoever did this didn't think that we would be able to trace this without Felicity. Thankfully for us, she's upgraded her software to the point of where it's like having her here to run the programs, I'm just the person pressing the buttons."_

"Where does that leave us?"

_"Well, I've tracked the transmission as coming from a receiver on the edge of town. I'm almost certain they aren't being held there. Instead, they're relaying the feed through the transmitter."_

"Does that help us at all?"

_"If you get me that transmitter, I may be able to keep tracking backwards from there."_

"Get me there."

* * *

_**12 hours to deadline** _

After a ten minute trip back to his bike and a thirty minute trip across the city, Oliver found himself outside the "receiver" that Ray had mentioned.

"Ray, this is a cell phone tower."

_"Yes, but this particularly cell phone company is owned by Digicom, one of the country's largest multimedia providers. Among the other service it provides is high-speed internet."_

"They were able to get into here and do what exactly?"

_"Basically, this transmitter acts as a long range signal carrier. Using this, they hooked it the hub located within that tower. This specific type of transmitter basically allows them to use the cell tower to broadcast its signal. In this case, it's been designed to broadcast wirelessly and to only access a single IP address: ours."_

"How would they do that?"

_"Unfortunately, there's no way to really hide the amount of bandwidth you guys use down here. Now, knowing what I do about the equipment that you have down here, you probably hide your fair share of it and Felicity probably physically hides the rest by hacking various databases that would track that kind of thing. But the downside is that Felicity is still human and there are bound to be slight gaps where people could read the amount of data being sorted through down here."_

"If someone knew what they were looking for-"

_"They would be able to hack your IP address. I understand that it's happened a few times before."_

"At our less secure previous location, never at home." Oliver said sadly.

 _"Well, don't say never because I'm pretty sure that's what happened."_ Ray replied softly.  _"Fortunately for you, there's an upside to all of this."_

"And that is?"

_"This can't entirely be done remotely. Whoever this is, they're taunting you so other than when they are directly pumping something into your system, you get to use it. This means that there is someone physically at that tower to physically turn the transmitter on and off each time it is being used."_

"It's been the same guy every time?"

_"According to their time sheets, which are coded by numbers associated with individual employees, the guards at these places work twelve hours shifts. The same number has been on duty each time that the transmitter has been activated."_

"Is he on duty now?"

_"Yes."_

If there had been any sort of breakthrough, the last hour had been it. As they were speaking, Ray was working on tracking the vans as they made their trip cross-country.

And now, Oliver had someone to interrogate. Slowly but surely, a fire built inside Oliver, one that could only be put out one way.

"Ray, you may want to shut off your comms for a bit." Oliver growled.

_"Why?"_

"Because what you're about to hear may not be very nice." Oliver said as he marched up the hill towards the tower.

_"Are you sure you want to do that, GA?"_

"I'm sure I want my family back and there isn't a person out there who should consider standing in my way."

 _"Fair point."_ Ray replied before Oliver heard the comm click in his ear, a sign that Ray was still there instead of the silence he would have heard if Ray had signed off.

Oliver couldn't say he didn't warn him. As Oliver reached the base of the tower, he realized that there was a small office attached to the tower's base. This was obviously where he needed to be looking.

"Atom, loop the security footage."

_"Can't. It's on a dedicated server located there."_

"Does that mean that there's no one watching this place? At least no one that took my family."

_"Not that I can locate. I can't say there isn't a camera somewhere in the periphery that is clued in on you though."_

"It's a risk I'll have to take." Oliver growled before silently approaching the door. Looking in, he saw that the set-up was small and that there was a single man operating the tower. Breathing deeply, Oliver stepped back before kicking the door in.

Instantly, the man at the booth turned, gun in hand, and leveled his weapon towards Oliver. Thankfully, he could tell by the way the man's hand shook that he wasn't really prepared to fire it. Reaching forward, Oliver grabbed the gun and disassembled it in one motion before throwing the parts back at the man.

Quickly, Oliver reached behind him and pulled out Slade's sword, pointing it just under the man's chin.

"Sit." Oliver barked evenly, his voice distorter hiding his voice.

"You got it." he said softly before collapsing back into his chair.

"The transmitter you've been activating for the last few days: where is it?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." the guard said evenly.

"Not smart." Oliver said before taking the sword and slicing it across the man's left leg, opening a shallow gash that bled instantly. Instantly, the man howled in pain and leaned over, trying to stop the bleeding. "You're going to tell me what I want to know. How many scars you leave with is up to you. Are we clear?"

"Crystal!" the guard grimaced.

"What's your name?"

"Walter." he replied. "Walter Brown."

"Walter, I know that you've been activating a transmitter from this location for about the last five days. You probably don't know much but what you do know, I need to know. So, I'll ask you one more time before I get really nasty: where is the transmitter?"

"Here." Walter replied, pointing at a fuse box on the far wall. "No one checks the fuses. I was ordered to put it in there."

"Why did you agree to do this?"

"They paid me ten million dollars." Walter growled as he kept applying pressure to the small wound. Oliver didn't have the heart to tell the man that the wound would stop bleeding on its own in about fifteen minutes.

"Ten million dollars?" Oliver asked in shock. "To do what?"

"Just hit a button on the transmitter. I get a text from a blocked number telling me to turn it on and then other one to turn it off. Eventually, they'll tell me to take the transmitter home, burn it and quit my job."

"Who told you to do this?"

"I don't know his name. He walked in with a briefcase and that transmitter. He told me what he needed me to do and the opened the briefcase. It was five million dollars up front."

"What did he look like?" Oliver said, lowering his sword from the man's neck.

"Skinny, mid 30s, black hair slicked all the way back."

Rolling with his suspicions, Oliver had a question: "Did he seem familiar? Like you'd seen him somewhere before."

"Maybe, seemed like if he had five million dollars to throw around, he was someone I would recognize." Walter said before adding. "He did this weird thing where he kept calling me by nicknames."

"What do you mean?"

"It was never Walter or Mr. Brown. It was Brown or Walt or Wally or something like that."

"Did he talk like he to you like he was talking to a child?"

"I don't even talk to my kids the way he talked down to me."

Roman Sionis. Skinny, mid 30s, black hair slicked back and an inferiority complex that drove him to talk down to everyone.

They had their mystery briber.

"Atom, can you trace from the transmitter back to the source?"

_"Sure, all I need is the wireless frequency it's operating off of?"_

"How would I find that out?"

_"Your new friend should be able to help you with that."_

Sure enough, Walter was able to provide them with all of the specifics that he had been given when also given the money. With that in place, Oliver and the rest of his team could now trace that signal back to its source and then, hopefully, to his family.

"Keep following their instructions." Oliver said softly before turning to leave.

"What is it being used for?" Walter asked before he went to leave.

"You don't want to know."

"I do."

Breathing deeply, Oliver answered.

"The people that kidnapped Oliver Queen's family are showing them to him every so often to ensure that he keeps up with their demands."

"Oh my god."

Turning back, Oliver placed a hand on the man's shoulder.

"Keep doing what you're doing. If you don't, his family may be killed."

"I will. I promise."

"Thank you." Oliver said with a hint of a smile before disappearing back into the night with a bigger lead than they'd had yet.

He just hoped it would be enough.

* * *

_**8 hours to deadline** _

The last four hours had been the worst. With a new lead and access to the FSD, they had everything they would need to track down the next step, the next clue. The only problem was that they could only work as fast as the computer was working, which obviously wasn't fast enough for Oliver.

"Where are we at?" Oliver asked for the 300th time in the last four hours.

"The transmitter is close and the vans are telling us the same thing. Both the signal and the vans return to somewhere in the eastern half of the country."

"Can you narrow it down any further than that?"

"It takes time." Ray replied simply. "That's all we can do."

"Unfortunately, my patience is wearing thin."

"We know, Oliver." Cole replied. "But there's only so much we can do."

Whatever Oliver would have said was interrupted by a sound that Oliver rarely heard: the doorbell. His eyebrows furrowed, Oliver raced up the stairs of the ArrowCave before locking it behind him. Slowly, Oliver made his way across the entrance hall to the front door. Looking out the windows next to the door, Oliver was surprised by who he saw.

"Mrs. Lance, what are you doing here?" Oliver asked in shock as Laurel's mother stepped forward to hug him before walking passed him and into the entrance hall.

"I wanted to see how you were doing." Dinah said as she turned back to face Oliver. "How are you, Oliver?"

Oliver was so shocked by the woman's appearance that lying didn't even cross his mind, which it would have if his mind had been straight.

"I'm doing my best to find them." Oliver said before realizing how strange his words would sound.

For some reason, Dinah didn't seem all that put off. In fact, she had a smirk about her that Oliver recognized all too well as the knowing looks of Sara and Laurel Lance.

"I know you are."

"Mrs. Lance-"

"Dinah." she corrected him.

"Dinah, I'm not really looking myself, I mean. I've been working with my security, who's been working with the police and the FBI and so on."

"I see." Dinah replied knowingly.

Something about all of this seemed very off. Slowly, Oliver lead Dinah into the study, motioning for her to sit as Oliver sat across from her.

"Dinah, what are you really doing here?"

"I knew my daughters very well, Oliver." Dinah said simply as she sat down. "I knew that Sara was The Canary. Quentin had told me about it after her death. It only made sense then when the new Canary showed up that Laurel was the one behind the mask."

"I had no idea." Oliver lied blatantly.

"Really? I thought you and Laurel were still close." Dinah asked.

"We were." Oliver confirmed. "I guess not as close as I thought though."

"So you mean to tell me that its just coincidence that my two daughters were friends with you and worked with The Green Arrow?" Dinah said softly. "You know of the Green Arrow? The savior of Starling City? The hero that showed up mere weeks after you returned from Lian Yu?"

"Diniah, whatever you think you know-"

"Oliver, I've known you since you were a child. I always hated that Laurel and Sara loved you so much. It wasn't that I disliked you, it was that I knew the kind of person that you were. Selfish but charming, smart but ignorant of the world around him, wasteful but caring. It wasn't that you were a terrible person. If that was the case, neither Sara or Laurel would have had anything to do with you." Dinah said, her tone clipped as she remembered the Oliver of the past. "Quentin and I disliked you because we both saw the good side of you but you never seemed to be able to use it."

"Dinah-"

"Then, I saw you after you came back and something was different. You did your best to make everyone think that you were the same but you weren't. You were quieter, you watched and listened more than you spoke and there was a strength when you spoke, something that hadn't been there before the island."

At this point, Oliver knew it was futile to argue with the woman. She was every bit as smart as her daughters and just as stubborn.

"You protect this city and you protected my daughters. I know that you are exhausting every resource to find them."

"I am." Oliver admitted softly. "My new team is working as we speak."

"New team? Who?"

"I can't say, Dinah. It's not my secret to tell." Oliver said before standing. "What did you actually come here to do?"

"I came to give you this." Dinah said as she pulled a long, thin black box from her purse before handing it to Oliver. Opening it, it held two things. The first was a picture of The Queen and Lance families together. Oliver appeared to be about fifteen in the picture. Laurel and Sara stood on either side of him with Robert and Quentin behind them. Moira and Dinah stood on the outside edges, next to their husbands.

The second thing instantly made Oliver tear up. Reaching into the shallow box, Oliver retrieved Capt. Quentin Lance's Medal of Valor.

"I remember that speech that you gave at Sara's funeral, Oliver. I remember how Quentin looked at you and how he treated you like the son he never had. I've tried to give this to Laurel on several occasions but she didn't want it. She always said there was someone else that deserved it more."

Looking down, Oliver could feel his heart breaking as he looked at the two things combined.

"I think she was talking about you, Oliver."

"What?" Oliver asked, his eyes matching Dinah's.

"Laurel still very much loves you, even if it's not from a romantic place. You two are soulmates of sorts, destined to be in each other's lives forever. Both of you have managed to find people in life that make you very happy. Unfortunately for Laurel, she lost that person."

The subtle reference to Tommy shook Oliver's heart even further.

"If I'm right about this and you are The Green Arrow, then you are the person that Laurel was talking about. I think she wanted you to have this to remind you that you are every bit the hero that my husband had been. He died protecting his city and his family and she knows that you would do the same."

Suddenly, Dinah stood and placed her hand on Oliver's arm which remained still as Oliver stared at the gift in front of him.

"I came here today to let you know that there is always more fight to be had. Keep looking, keep searching and never give up. I know that you will find them, Oliver. When you do, let my daughter know that I expect her to visit Central City very soon."

"I will." Oliver said as his voice broke, tears now flowing down his face. Slowly, Oliver looked up and realized that Dinah was leaving. Chasing after her, Oliver spoke up and used the only words he could: "Thank you."

"Find them, Oliver." Dinah said before slowly turning and walking out of the house. Standing there in the foyer of his home, Oliver slowly realized that he wasn't the only person affected by this. He had done his best to keep the other family members of those taken at a distance. But that wasn't fair. He wasn't going to be the only one hurting if they weren't found.

Finally, Oliver realized that he wasn't the only person he should have been fighting for. There were friends and families around the country worried sick about the disappearance of his own family.

Now, it was his responsibility to bring them back, not just for him but for everyone.

Suddenly, Oliver's phone rang. Quickly, Oliver picked it up without even looking at it.

 _"We've got it."_ came the voice of Ray Palmer.  _"Start packing."_

"I'll be right down." Oliver said before sprinting towards the ArrowCave. Seconds later, he was through the door and down to the computer bay. "Talk to me."

"Metropolis." Ray said simply. "The vans ended up at an airport in Vegas. The plane then landed at a private airfield outside the city and the signal is coming from somewhere in the city."

Instantly, Oliver turned and marched away from the computer bay.

"Grab as much stuff as you can. We're leaving in an hour."

* * *

_**6 hours to deadline** _

Oliver and his revamped version of Team Arrow were an hour into a flight to Metropolis when his plane's phone rang. Curiously, Oliver grabbed the phone and put it to his ear.

"Oliver Queen."

_"It's Wayne."_

"What do you need?" Oliver barked in annoyance.

_"I'm letting you know that things just changed in a big way."_

"What way is that?"

_"The Kryptonian signal has disappeared."_

"Disappeared?" Oliver said in shock. "How is that even possible?"

 _"I'm not certain."_ Wayne admitted.  _"Kent and I were tracking it as it passed Mars and then it just vanished. I'll have my satellite try and get visual evidence of whatever was generating the signal but I can only do that when it passes on its next orbit in twenty-five minutes."_

"OK. I'm not exactly sure what you expect me to do."

_"Nothing. I'm keeping you up to date. Remember, you and Kent are technically in charge of our little cabal now."_

"Thanks for reminding me." Oliver said, rolling his eyes as Wayne obviously disagreed with that particular decision. "By the way, how did you get this number?"

 _"I'm me."_ was Wayne's simple answer.

"Well, don't call it again." Oliver said before hanging the phone back up. Once that was done, Oliver stood and shut the door to the small compartment of his private plane that his new team was in. When he had become the Arrow, Oliver had his entire plan sound proofed. Now, if a door was shut, there was no way to hear inside it without a lot of special technology.

Tech the pilot would not have.

"Do we have anything more than just the city?"

"Not currently." Ray replied. "As we get closer to the source of the signal, the encryption gets heavier and continually changes."

"So as we get closer, it gets harder to track?" Snapper asked.

"Exactly." Ray confirmed. "I've managed to receive the video footage from the airfield that they landed at."

"And?"

"Plane is registered a shell corp with no owner that I can find. All eight members of your family were loaded onto a van that hit Janus Cosmetics among a list of other places."

"Where else did they go?"

"Over the course of the last week, they hit Janus Cosmetics, several empty warehouses, a local doctor's office, a LexCorps factory, several Wayne Enterprises locations and a high rise office building in the center of town. They've hit all of those locations several times in rotation and they're parking inside each time."

"Video footage from inside?"

"Mysteriously disappears every time they enter the parking garages at these facilities." Ray replied in frustration.

"They're intentionally trying to throw us off." Oliver guessed. "We can guess the hostage location to one of those but not all of them. I'm assuming that they visited all of them before the first transmission."

"That would be correct."

"Great." Oliver grumbled as he leaned back and stared out the window. Right now, the calmness of the air around the plane was the only thing keeping him level. Without that, Oliver worried that the monster growling his chest would have reared its head already. As it was, Oliver knew that he was going to have to fight very hard to keep that demon under control once they landed. Over the years, Oliver had learned to control that impulse, the one that had led him to kill in the past. But this was very,  _very_ different. This was his loved ones. If whoever had taken them would give up easily, Oliver was certain that he would remain in control.

If not, Oliver wasn't certain that he could control himself. He knew that he would destroy himself in order to save his family. If that meant breaking his no killing rule again, then so be it.

Oliver was shaken from his thoughts by another phone call. Annoyed, Oliver picked up the phone.

"I thought I told you not t-"

_"Oliver?"_

That was not the voice he had been expecting.

"Barry?" Oliver asked in shock. "How are things going?"

_"Good. She's awake."_

"That's great!" Oliver said, a warmth filling his heart for the first time in days. Now, he hoped that the two of them would be able to work things out.

_"It's not that simple."_

"What?" Oliver asked. That tone was something that Oliver used, not Barry. Barry was ever the hopeful one, this sounded like dejection. Oliver wasn't even aware that Barry had that emotion in his body.

_"She woke up but something happened to her. To both of them. Wayne and I have been going over their DNA and it appears that when the particle accelerator went off, both of them were hit by its effects."_

"Then why did nothing happen to them like it did you?"

_"There was no catalyst. When it hit me, I got struck by lightning. That gave me speed. Brickwell had a building fall on him, he basically turned to rock. Blackout was attached to a power station, so on and so forth."_

"So Snart's attack-"

_"-acted as that catalyst. For Cisco, it was the vibrations from his high frequency and for Caitlin, it was Snart's cold gun. That was the catalyst they need."_

"So what now?"

_"Well, we haven't been able to get Cisco to sit still. In fact, he's giving off some small level vibrations that seem to be growing by the minute. He's literally throwing things around by shaking the particles in the air."_

"And Caitlin?" Oliver asked, immediately noticing that depressed look in Barry's face on the video screen in front of him. For several seconds, he didn't answer but when he did, it was through the sounds of his sobbing.

_"She can't maintain heat. But the worst part is that when someone touches her, she starts draining the heat from that person until, until-"_

"Until they're dead." Oliver finished sadly before leaning back in his seat and rubbing his eyes. "How many has she-"

 _"Three."_ Barry said sadly.  _"We were able to get Ronnie in here. Using his abilities, she was able to take some of his heat and it's stabilized her back at a normal temperature but it's already starting to drop."_

"Any ideas on how to fix that?"

 _"We're working on it."_ Barry said sadly.  _"But for right now, we had to put her in one of the cells. It seems that she has the ability to control whether or not she takes the heat but right now, her body is doing it instinctively."_

"She'll figure it out, Barry. I know she will." Oliver said brightly. "It's just going to take time like it took you time."

 _"How many people that she kill before then?"_ Barry snapped back.  _"What's that going to do to her? She was barely awake for the first two but the last one, she was very awake for. She watched as someone unknowingly touched her. Within seconds, she was draining the life out of the man without realizing it. She watched in horror as she literally sucked the life right out of him. Now, we've had to keep her in a cell, she won't eat, she won't talk to anyone."_

"Barry, who in the world knows her better than anyone?"

_"Ronnie."_

"You and I both know that's not true anymore." Oliver scolded him. "You and Cisco and Caitlin have spent the last five plus years together every night of the week. Ronnie did that for about six months and then moved to another city."

_"A very close city."_

"Go down there. Talk to her. Let her know that you're there for her. Let her know that you love her."

_"Is this really the best time for that?"_

"Do you still love her? Even if you never get to touch her again, do you still love her?" Oliver asked quickly.

 _"Of course."_ Barry replied as if it were the simplest question in the world.

"Don't you think she would want to know that? If that happened to me, I would want to know that Felicity still accepted me for who I am and loved me for it."

 _"I suppose."_ Barry said before chuckling.  _"When did you become the relationship savant?"_

"When Felicity and Caitlin forced me."

 _"Good for them."_ Barry replied before hanging up suddenly.

Smirking slightly despite his worry for Caitlin, Oliver turned back to Ray.

"Are we gong to know anything soon?"

"Likely, no. We'll have a better chance of breaking the encryption once we get on the ground."

"Then get some sleep."

"You're not the boss of me." Ray replied with a smirk, obviously catching the joke.

"Yes, I am." Oliver said, playing along. "It's going to be a long night."

"You really think we're going to find them tonight?" Snapper asked.

"Oh, I know it."

* * *

_**1 hour to deadline** _

As they landed, Oliver raced out of the plane and onto the tarmac where one of the pilots indicated that the two vehicles that Oliver had requested were ready in the hanger. Once the pilots left, Oliver turned back to the rest of the team, handing them a slip with an address.

"Go there. You'll find a bunch of gear in storage that is already linked to the equipment in the ArrowCave."

"Seriously, how many back-up locations do you have?" Ray asked incredulously.

"Eight." Oliver said simply before continuing. "Go there, get the programs up and running and finish tracing that transmission."

"What are you going to be doing?"

"We only have an hour before they get to Roy. I'm going to take a shot in the dark that they aren't being held at any one of the named locations. Too obvious. By the time you guys get everything set up, we won't have time to check anything out. So, I'm gearing up and heading to one of the warehouses. If I'm right, then we'll have found them. If not, then that's one down. Once you're all set-up, you'll be able to help me."

"I'm going with you." Cole said firmly.

"You're not." Oliver countered. "This isn't Starling. I get a free pass in this city because I know people here. Anyone else is a potential threat and even with my blessing, you won't be allowed to work here. Help Ray get everything set up and help me from there."

"Dammit." Cole growled before nodding. "Fine, we'll do our best from your back-up location."

"Good." Oliver confirmed. "Now, get moving."

"Will do. Try not to get yourself killed." Ray replied with a grin and a grasp of Oliver's shoulder.

"You do the same." Oliver said as he sprinted back onto the plane where his Arrow gear was held. Grabbing the bag, Oliver raced inside the empty hanger where Oliver dressed and raced out into the city. With no real tech support to speak of and Ray's group not yet set up, Oliver was relying on his wrist computer for directions, slightly slower than Felicity barking several orders into his ear simultaneously.

Thinking it would be easiest, Oliver raced to the warehouse furthest away from the center of town. Most of the locations were centrally located in Metropolis, so Oliver's thinking was that if he hit the outliers first, he could hit more towards the end of the hour he had left.

Racing as fast as he could, Oliver reached the first warehouse in record time. As Oliver dismounted from his bike, grabbing his bow, he looked down and saw that his clock gave him 51 minutes left before they killed Ray.

Wasting no time, Oliver went into the first warehouse. As expected, it was completely empty. In fact, this particular warehouse looked as if it hadn't been used in years. This made the locks in the building weak, a good thing for Oliver as he raced through the offices at the far end of the warehouses. Within five minutes of sprinting up and down the stairs, Oliver found nothing and raced back to his bike.

Working his way back towards the heart of Metropolis, Oliver pushed his bike to its very limit. With 38 minutes left on the clock, Oliver reached the next abandoned warehouse. This one appeared to have been in use much more recently.

"Check-in?" Oliver asked. Getting no response, Oliver didn't wait for the rest of his team to get set up as he set off at a sprint through the warehouse. While it appeared that this particular building had been in use until recently, it was another dead end and Oliver dashed back to his bike.

32 minutes left on the clock, Oliver ripped out of the warehouse's parking lot, quite literally pushing the bike to its breaking point.

The next target was the Janus Cosmetics facility. Unfortunately for Oliver, this one was still occupied which meant a more careful search, one that would waste time as he avoided getting caught. However, that's what Oliver did. Standing across the street, Oliver scanned the building with his infrared goggles, marking each person within the building with a tag. While this would give him a general idea of the number of people within the building, it wasn't foolproof. Often times, furnaces or ovens generated enough heat to trick his headset into thinking it was a person.

The technology simply wasn't quite as great as they made it appear in the movies.

Possible threats identified, Oliver raced inside the building. At this point, his muscles were starting to ache from the sheer pressure he was putting his body through. However, no amount of pain would slow him down. Once again, Oliver systematically pushed from door to door, scanning the rooms for his family.

Once again, another dead end.

19 minutes left.

"Check-in?"

_"Oliver, we're set up and I've got a better lock on the origin of the signal."_

"Spit it out!" Oliver barked.

_"Ignore anything that isn't downtown. It's definitely coming from somewhere in the downtown."_

"Good."

That cut out the LexCorps factory, most of the Wayne Enterprises locations and one other warehouse. Left was the high rise building, two warehouse, three Wayne Enterprises buildings and the doctor's office. Figuring the doctor's office would be the easiest to check, Oliver gunned his engine in that direction.

As Oliver arrived at the office, he noticed the name on the front:  _Leslie Tompkins._ Something about that was fishy, considering that Oliver knew that Tompkins had a connection to Wayne.

Could this all have been Wayne from the beginning? Was it really possible that he was that twisted? Shaking the thought from his mind, Oliver raced inside and did a quick check of the office. As he expected, there was nothing. Looking down at this watch, Oliver noticed that there were only 8 minutes until he was out of time. Knowing that there was a warehouse of suspicion only a block away, Oliver bolted for the door, running through the window next to the door rather than waste time with the door.

Jumping on his bike, Oliver jetted over to the warehouse. Once again, he was sprinting on foot, scanning the warehouse. This was unfortunately the largest of the warehouse to be checked that evening with five floors in the office section as opposed to the two or three the others had had. Pushing himself to the limit, Oliver raced down the halls, checking every closet, stairway and room before he realized that they weren't there.

_Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep._

Time was up.

_"Oliver."_

"Put it through, Atom." Oliver muttered softly, a sinking feeling in his heart. "Keep tracing the signal."


	14. Metropolis

_**Deadline** _

As Oliver lifted his wrist up, he saw that the feed on his screen had changed just like he had expected. However, he didn't necessarily see what he expected to see. Instead of the same image he had seen with the last two, Oliver saw Roy but this time, there were three other people in the room. The first held a gun to Roy's head. The second and third both helped hold Roy's arm down against a table in front of him.

**"OLIVER QUEEN, YOUR TIME IS UP."**

"Just do it quickly." Oliver whispered, begging that if they were going to take Roy from him and Thea that they do it quickly.

**"WE ARE AWARE THAT YOU HAVE ARRIVED IN METROPOLIS. IN LIEU OF THAT DEVELOPMENT, WE HAVE SELECTED AN ALTERNATIVE OPTION, OLIVER QUEEN."**

"What is that?" Oliver asked desperately.

**"THIS."**

Suddenly, one of the men holding Roy's arm down withdrew a sword from behind him. In one motion, he swung and hit Roy's arm, separating his hand from the rest of his arm just below the elbow. Instantly, Roy began to growl in pain. However, he never screamed, refusing to give in to the pain that was surely racking through his body along with the shock of losing his hand.

"You motherfuckers!" Oliver shouted. "I swear on my father's life that I will kill each and every one of you."

**"IT'S IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER, OLIVER QUEEN, THAT YOUR FRIEND IS NOT DEAD."**

Quickly, the two men worked together to tie a tourniquet around what remained of Roy's arm. While it didn't stop the bleeding, it certainly was slowing it down and allowing the blood to clot. That would give him a lot more time.

**"IN THIRTY MINUTES, ROY HARPER WILL START TO HALLUCINATE. IN ONE HOUR, HE WILL PASS OUT. IN ANYWHERE FROM TWO TO FOUR HOURS, HE WILL DIE. FIND US BEFORE THEN AND YOU'LL BE ABLE TO SAVE HIM. FAIL AND THE ARSENAL DIES."**

Seconds later, the image cut away and Oliver's normal wrist computer screen returned.

"Please tell me that you were able to trace that." Oliver pleaded into his comm.

_"It's going to take about fifteen minutes but I'm fairly certain I was able to locate it."_

"Work fast." Oliver said before collapsing against the side of the building next to him.

It took Oliver a few minutes to realize that his hands were shaking. Slowly, Oliver removed his gloves, rubbing his hands together to try and combat what was surely the start of shock. He couldn't afford to freak out now but it was something that Oliver couldn't help. He was close, so close, to finding his family. At this point, his vengeance didn't matter. What mattered was returning his family to Starling City and never allowing them to leave again.

At least not leave him.

In that moment, Oliver had never felt further from them. He had tracked them all the way across the country and then chased their ghosts around Metropolis, hoping upon hope that he would find them before their time expired.

He had failed again. Even though Roy was alive, he was lying alone in that same room that Lyla and his mother had died in, bleeding from the stump where his hand used to be. Things would never be the same, Oliver realized. Even if everyone that was left got to go home, they could never go back to the way things used to be. Without a huge breakthrough in technology, Arsenal would be forced into an early retirement and that was the best case scenario.

The worst case is that Arsenal's gear would be added to Sara's memorial case.

Suddenly, Oliver was brought back to one of the first times that Oliver and Roy had really talked. It had been just after Oliver revealed his identity to Roy.

...

...

...

"Relax." Oliver whispered from behind the younger man has he pulled back on the drawstring.

"Telling me to relax isn't going to help me relax." Roy snapped back. "Why do I have to learn how to use a bow anyway? I can just, you know, smash them into a wall."

"You really want to live the rest of your life like this, Roy?" Oliver asked.

"Not really." Roy admitted.

"But you still want to help after we get this out of you?"

"I wanted to help before I had this Mirakuru junk floating through my veins."

"Then you learn how to use this." Oliver said, pointing to the bow. "When we cure you, you'll need it."

"Where did you learn to use a bow?" Roy asked as he pulled the drawstring back again.

"You certainly ask a lot of questions." Oliver growled simply.

"I figure if we're going to be doing this together, I probably ought to get to know you better."

"So wouldn't you start with where I like to eat, what's my favorite movie, that kind of thing?" Oliver asked as Roy fired the arrow, missing the target entirely. "I said relax, Roy. You're bringing tension into the bow when you pull back. Just breathe and shoot."

"Ok." Roy said before turning back to the target. "You know I would ask you that kind of stuff but it seems a bit simple, doesn't it? No offense but I didn't come down here because I thought you were Oliver Queen."

"No offense taken. So why ask me about the bow?"

Lowering the bow and releasing the tension on the bowstring, Roy turned back to Oliver.

"Because I want to know how a billionaire playboy turned into a murdering vigilante."

"I don't do that anymore." Oliver growled, his heart sinking slightly.

"But you did. According to Thea, you filled Merlyn's pool with beer once and you and Tommy rented out a football stadium to play strip kickball before you left with your dad. That same person came back and decided they were going to help people."

"Is there a question coming?"

Oliver had to admit: Roy's question was simple and very good.

"What happened to you?"

"More than you could possibly know."

"Maybe you'll tell me someday." Roy said as he turned back to the targets.

"Roy, these are things that not even Diggle knows."

"What about Felicity?" Roy said softly. "I've noticed that there aren't really a whole lot of secrets between the two of you."

"There aren't any secrets between any of us."

"You haven't told Thea you're The Arrow." Roy countered. "And it seems to me that you haven't told Diggle or Felicity what really happened to you on that island."

"Are you done?" Oliver growled. "No one needs to know about that. I'm different, I'm better than the version of me that left and that's all that matters."

"I think Felicity would disagree."

"Why would I care if she disagreed?" Oliver asked in confusion.

"Seriously?" Roy said, looking at Oliver as if he was the stupidest man alive. "You're really going to play that card?"

"What card?" Oliver asked again, completely oblivious to whatever Roy was talking about.

"You are totally into Felicity. She's into you too, by the way."

Roy thought that he was in love with Felicity? For a moment, Oliver had to fight down the urge to laugh. Sure, he cared about Felicity and she certainly wasn't bad on the eyes. But he was with Sara. They were meant for each other, equally broken. Maybe they weren't particularly great for each other but there was only one person left who really understood what he had gone through and that was Sara.

Same thing for him with her.

"I don't know what you think you're seeing but you are wrong."

"You'll see." Roy said as he turned back to the target. Taking a second, Roy breathed, allowing all of his tension to disappear before firing. His shot wasn't perfect but it hit the target, a rapid improvement from a second earlier. "When you figure it out, I'll be there to say I told you so."

...

...

...

Even then, Roy had been able to see what everyone else had seen.

Everyone except for him.

It was amazing how quickly Roy had acclimated to being a part of Team Arrow. The moment he had been brought into the fold, he had done everything he could to be better. Things weren't perfect and there were bumps along the way but most of those were fueled by Mirakuru. Once they had been able to cure him, he had become one of Oliver's most trusted friends, not to mention his sister's boyfriend.

At first, he had been an annoying tag-a-long, someone who, despite Oliver's repeated attempts to get him to stop, just followed him around, almost causing more trouble than he helped to stop. Now, he was family, just like the rest of them.

Slowly, Oliver worked his way back to his feet before muttering into his comms.

"What do you have for me?"

_"Unfortunately, not that much. We're still tracing the transmission signal although I can say that we were definitely right about it being in downtown."_

"Good." Oliver replied, his voice breaking ever so slightly. "I'll keep looking."

_"We're going to find them, Oliver."_ Cole said in his ear.

"Damn straight. We're going to find them and we're going to take them all home."

* * *

_**1 hour and 45 minutes until Roy Harper bleeds out** _ _******* _

Ten minutes later, Oliver checked in again as he raced to another warehouse.

"Anything?" Oliver said as he dove in and out of traffic.

_"We've managed to narrow it down to three locations."_ Snapper said before explaining.  _"Palmer literally has not stopped typing since you called last. Figured I'd answer for him."_

"What are those locations?"

_"There's the office building, the warehouse you are currently going to or the Wayne Enterprises facility six blocks away."_

"Keep me informed." Oliver said before ripping his wrist back, causing the bike to launch itself forward at even more dangerous speeds. As he did, he heard his cell phone go off. Hitting a button on his wrist, the phone's display was placed on a hologram HUD inside his helmet which allowed him to see who was calling.

Not entirely shocked at the identity of the caller, Oliver answered.

"Clark."

_"Oliver, how are you?"_

"I've been doing better, Clark." Oliver asked, knowing that this was Kent simply being polite. "Are you going to scold me now?"

_"So the rumors are true. I just got a call from my friend at the Daily Planet that someone that looks oddly like The Green Arrow has been racing around Metropolis."_

"I wanted to get out of the city for awhile."

_"I could have sworn that when we started the Justice League, we decided that no one entered another hero's city without letting them know that they were going to be there."_

Of course it wasn't Oliver's actual presence that bothered him. It was the fact that Oliver had broken their very loose rules when he did come to Metropolis without warning.

"No time, Clark. I found out that whoever took my family brought them here. So I got on a plane and came here."

_"I understand. Just don't forget that you abide by my rules when you're here."_

"You and I have the same rule." Oliver growled.

_"No, we don't. You've killed before and you killed Ra's al Ghul just two years ago. Don't try and tell me that you don't kill, especially when your family is involved."_

"Just stay out of my way." Oliver warned. "Then we don't have any problems."

_"Do you need any help?"_ Clark asked, ignoring Oliver's threat.  _"I can search much quicker."_

"No. Whoever did this is watching me and your city. If they see you searching, there's no telling what they're going to do."

_"You've been getting help behind the scenes. How is that not the same thing?"_

"You're going to have to ask whoever it is when I don't kill them." Oliver said flatly. "Are we done, Clark?"

_"Yes. Just be safe out there."_

"Thanks, Mom." Oliver said before cutting the phone call off.

Of course he had forgotten about the League's rule: we all stay in our city. If there's a reason to come to someone else's city as your alter ego, you call ahead and you ask permission. This was supposed to work for everyone: Clark called Bruce, Dick called Diana and Oliver called Barry. Unfortunately for them, that rule wasn't really thought through that well when it came to emergencies. Knowing Oliver and the fact that he liked Clark (even if he was a bit of a boy scout), he probably would have contacted him eventually.

But Clark followed the rules to a T and that meant that when you were coming to his city, you acted as he would have.

Oliver just hoped that his presence wouldn't have Clark's underwear in a bunch the rest of the night.

Seconds later, Oliver arrived at one of three remaining places where his family could be held. Again, this place appeared to be abandoned. However, Oliver learned not to underestimate any location based on its appearances. Withdrawing his bow, Oliver went through these locations much slower than he did the others. With the other searches, there had been about a 6% chance of finding his family and the people who took them.

Now, that percentage went up to 33% and that meant the odds of a firefight also went up dramatically.

This particular warehouse was rather small in terms of office space where his family could be held. There were only two floors and each floor was only about five offices. Slowly, Oliver made his way through, busting into the doors of each office, searching each one for possible basement entrances or even hidden entrances. Using a device that Felicity and Ray had developed, Oliver was able to locate any potential hidden entrances using an ultrasonic frequency that would penetrate the walls and floors. Any gap in the surface would register as a possible hidden door and be tagged.

Unfortunately for Oliver, nothing came up and so Oliver raced back out to his bike. Once he was there, he sat back on the bike and activated his commlink.

"Speak to me."

_"Still nothing too certain. It's obviously not the location that you're at."_ Ray muttered as the sound of keyboard strikes clicked in the background.

"Obviously." Oliver said with annoyance. "We've got to get something soon. Roy doesn't have that much longer."

_"I know, Oliver. But I can only push the computer so hard and I'm making it do as much as I can."_

"Update me when you can. I'm going to the Wayne facility."

_"You got it."_

As Oliver drove off towards his next target, he was suddenly brought to an image of Felicity, a smile coming to his face as he remembered a conversation he had had with Felicity. It had happened only the day after the death of Ra's al Ghul.

...

...

...

Smiling, Oliver took a seat next to Felicity in the Foundry. Oliver still couldn't believe that everything had worked out. It hadn't been perfect. Quentin had died. Slade had died. It surprised Oliver how much that one hurt him in particular. He had already tried to kill Slade once in the past. However, Slade had been different in his last weeks. The hatred fueled by the Mirakuru had slowly but surely started to disappear. While that insanity would probably always left its mark, he may have been a bit more normal.

It felt fitting that his mask was placed next to Sara's gear in the memorial case along with the gun that Quentin had on him that night.

"Are you as shocked as I am that we actually won?" Felicity asked as she leaned into him.

"I'm more amazed that we managed to keep the death toll as low as we did."

The final reports were that only 213 of the city's police officers had been killed along with Slade. That was in comparison to the estimated 500 League members who had been killed in the surprise assault.

"We had a good leader." Felicity said softly, his voice tickling his chin.

"Your leader had good help." Oliver said, his arm bringing Felicity in closer. Come hell or high water, Oliver vowed to never let her go.

"I'm not going anywhere, Oliver." Felicity said, obviously sensing what was on Oliver's mind. "I mean, I'll have to leave eventually but not like permanently! You know work, bathroom visits, showers, grocery store, all those kind of things. I'll be leaving but I won't really be leaving because I'll be coming back and I'm rambling again and I did not miss this while I was in Gotham."

"I did." Oliver whispered before placing a kiss on her head. "I missed it every day."

"Really?" Felicity asked, her eyes looking up to match his. "You missed me rambling? How could you possibly miss that? I mean, it's so obnoxious and my voice gets kind of whiny the longer I go on and I'm doing it again. OK, stopping in 3, 2, 1."

Felicity literally held her breath to stop herself, causing Oliver to laugh out loud.

"I didn't even know you could do that." Felicity observed.

"Honestly, I haven't had much reason to over the last few years." Oliver admitted. "I may not be on the island anymore but things haven't really been that much easier."

"You didn't help, you know." Felicity muttered. "You did your very best to keep yourself away from everyone else, even Dig and I."

"I thought you'd be safer that way."

"Oliver, you're the flippin' Green Arrow. I can't think of a single person who I would be safer to be around."

"You'd become a target." Oliver said sadly before Felicity turned to face him suddenly before planting a kiss right on his lips. "You would protect me. I'm not asking you to give yourself up for me. I'm asking you to protect me if I need it."

"What if I'm the one that needs the protection?" Oliver asked with a grin.

"The only thing you need protection from is yourself." Felicity said, rolling her eyes before returning to her seat pressed up against him. "Yourself and me if you make me angry."

"Damn straight there."

"Glad we agree." Felicity said before segueing to another topic. "Now, I heard rumors that the CEOs of Queen Consolidated are resigning."

"Where did you hear that?"

"Thea."

"Makes sense." Oliver chuckled before nodding his head. "Yeah, we're going to retain controlling interest and basically run the company that way but we're going to handpick our successor."

"Walter." Felicity replied, not really asking.

"Yeah, he's the only one on our list so far." Oliver smirked. "How'd you guess?"

"He's your stepfather, a brilliant businessman, previously worked for Queen Consolidated and one of the few people you know that you can trust."

"His accent is also fantastic." Oliver added with a smirk.

"Oh god, it is." Felicity replied practically drooling before looking up at Oliver. "I did that in front of you, didn't I?"

"You did." Oliver said softly. "I suppose it's alright."

"You suppose?" Felicity asked, her eyes raised but her voice full of sarcasm. "Is Oliver Queen going to get possessive and or jealous?"

"If you let me." Oliver grinned before leaning forward to kiss her. Felicity's face was red when they broke apart.

"You keep doing that and I'll let you do whatever you want to me."

"Really?"

"Well, I, you see-" Felicity started, the embarrassment obvious before it simply faded away. "Actually, yeah, whatever you want."

"I could get used to that." Oliver grinned.

"I certainly hope so."

Over the next few months, Felicity would consistently tease Oliver about his unemployment, especially after Walter named her the newest Vice President of Queen Consolidated. Of course, Oliver was a billionaire and not necessarily hurting for work but he did admit that sitting at home all day and watching his fortune grow was not necessarily the most fulfilling thing.

It had been Diggle who had originally suggested the idea of running for Mayor. Of course, he meant it as a joke. But it was Felicity who took the idea and ran with it, suggesting that there was no person so singularly devoted to Starling City as Oliver and no one else who had the means to change the city for the better without accepting a host of "donations" that basically were bribes intended to slave out the political process.

So, Oliver secretly started working out of an office that would eventually be his campaign headquarters to determine whether he would be a good candidate. Pollsters were paid inordinate amounts of money and signed legally binding gag orders to maintain the secrecy of his search.

The results were good. Very good.

When compared to the likes of Thea Queen-Harper, Walter Steele, Ted Kord, Maxwell Lord, Adam Donner and Carter Bowen, Oliver appeared to be a runaway favorite to challenge for Donner's place. Kord spent too much time in Keystone City, Steele was considered to be a bit on the older range and was not in a stable relationship, Thea wasn't old enough yet and was about to leave for Keystone and Carter Bowen hadn't been consistently in Starling City for years.

In the end, the race really came down to Lord and Oliver or so the data had said.

Still, Oliver had considered not running until Felicity basically scolded him into doing it, something she very quickly became good at.

It had been one of the greatest surprises in his life when he found out that she had been right all along.

...

...

...

Oliver knew that when they all came back they would be disappointed that he was no longer Mayor. However, he could live with their disappointment if it meant that they were alive and home.

Not like they would have much choice.

As Oliver approached the Wayne Enterprises facility, Oliver groaned when he saw the size of the building. It was a fourteen story factory/office building that acted as the WayneTech location for Metropolis. This meant a host of offices to check and more hidden places than Oliver could certainly checked. He hoped that Palmer would come back to him with something soon.

Otherwise, he was going to have to manually check each room in this building and that was time that he couldn't truly afford. As it was, that was his only option and so Oliver went about scanning the entire factory floor.

Each room was checked, each closet opened and each nook and cranny scanned for possible trap doors and hidden entrances.

Nothing.

Slowly, Oliver entered the office section of the building. With each door that he opened, Oliver's frustration grew. He knew that if they weren't here that they had narrow the possible locations down to one.

That was good news.

What wasn't good news was that this particular building was a brand new 101-story office building that had been build within the last year. The building rose nearly two thousand feet from the ground, making it the tallest structure in the United States. Currently, the building was inhabited by only a few companies but more were intending to move in within the next year.

The square footage of the building meant that a complete scan of the building would take hours. Unfortunately, Oliver couldn't waste that time when he could check and eliminate entire structures from their list. Oliver had a strange feeling that they were being held within that tower but he had to check other locations first to make sure.

As Oliver made his way through the offices, he kept looking for something that may have reminded him of the two rooms he had seen so far but was finding no success. Of course, both rooms were standard white empty offices so there wasn't a whole lot to go on either.

Every room that Oliver opened was completely furnished unfortunately and none of them bore the uncleaned walls from the murders of Lyla and Moira that would surely be there.

Finally, Oliver reached the top floor of the Wayne Enterprises facility and opened the last office door.

Empty.

"Dammit." Oliver whispered to himself, his worst fears come true. "Ray, I need info and I need it now."

_"What do you have?"_

"They're not here, they must be in that new high rise." Oliver said before slamming his fist into the wall next to him which gave way easily. Removing his hand from the wall, Oliver made a mental note to send Wayne a small check for the repairs to the wall. "I can't just go in there and search every floor. I need something more than that."

_"If we know that they're in the high rise, I think I can do something about that."_

"What?"

_"Well, it's a relatively new building and so there's not a whole lot of activity in there. If I can hack into the utilities for Metropolis, I should be able to find where they're all going in that building. I imagine that kidnapping and holding an entire family would use a lot of resources, especially internet with the amount of video they've been streaming to us."_

"How long with it take?"

_"Depends on how long it takes me to get into the various systems. Half hour or so?"_

"Make it fifteen minutes." Oliver ordered as he marched out of the building.

_"I'll do my best."_

* * *

_**45 minutes left** _

With nothing better to do, Oliver had raced over to the tower where his family was being held while he waited for more specific information from Ray. Even once Oliver knew where he was going to be heading, this was going to be a race against the clock. More than likely, they weren't on a lower floor as those were already starting to be filled (they were the cheapest rental spaces). This meant that Oliver was probably looking for his family on one of the upper floors.

If Oliver was right, that meant either a trip on the elevator or a race up the stairs. Unfortunately for Oliver, whoever had taken his family had been watching him from the very beginning and now that Oliver was literally right under their noses, he doubted that had changed. The culprits behind his family's kidnapping had done everything they could to make this as challenging for Oliver has possible and more than likely, that meant that Oliver wasn't getting a free trip up the tower in the glass elevators.

"Anything?" Oliver asked as he drifted to a stop just in front of the building.

_"I'm in the system now. It's going to take another few minutes."_

"Do it quick."

_"I'm working as fast as I can."_ Ray snapped back.

"I know you are." Oliver said softly. "I want to thank all of you. Without you, I would have been nowhere near finding my family. Without you guys, I'm fairly certain that all of my family would have died before I found them."

_"Get them back safe and then you can be thankful."_ Cole said firmly.

_"I don't know about you guys but I rather like the thanks. Thea is too similar to her brother."_

"What does that mean?"

_"She forgets the work that I do sometimes."_ Snapper replied.  _"Roy was always pretty quick to express his appreciation. Thea not so much. Not that I'm doing this for their thanks."_

"Thea appreciated the work you did, Snapper." Oliver answered. "She told me as much herself and when she finds out that you were instrumental in helping me, I'm certain that she'll tell you herself."

_"Now that I think about that, I honestly don't care about that. I just want them to be safe or at the very least choosing to put themselves in danger."_

"Me too." Oliver said softly, a slight smirk on his face as he stepped off his bike.

Looking up at the building in front of him, Oliver realized the fight he was in for suddenly. It had been months since he had faced a task this large and the last time he had, he had Laurel and Diggle right next to him. Now, he was going to end up fighting his way up a superstructure alone and facing against a group of mercenaries that took his entire family without leaving a trace.

Needless to say, Oliver was not particularly thrilled about this. However, it changed nothing. If his life had taught him anything, it was that he was capable of overcoming unimaginable odds especially when it came to his family. Oliver had fought through Lian Yu, Hong Kong and Moscow to return to his family. He had fought and defeated Malcolm Merlyn, Slade Wilson and Ra's al Ghul to keep his family safe.

This was just the next step. Whether it was an army of mercenaries, Assassins or simply Mirakuru goons, Oliver would fight and defeat anyone who stood between him and his family and this situation would end no differently.

One way or another, Oliver was walking out of this building and he was doing it with his family intact.

_"Oliver."_

"Ray, please tell me you got something."

_"I've got a massive spike in bandwidth usage on the 94th floor."_ Ray explained.  _"Going back to the specs of the buidling, the 94th floor was built and designed to house some company's secret projects. It's x-ray proof and was built with the ability to withstand a high grade explosive impact."_

"Someone was planning on hiding from someone with this."

_"Yes, but I don't think it was you."_

"Clark?" Oliver asked curiously as he took off in a sprint towards the building.

_"Protection from super bombs and X-Ray vision? That's kind of Kent's MO, isn't it?"_

"Yes, it is." Oliver said as he literally jumped through the front door. "I'm in. Unless I ask for your help, I'm going to need radio silence."

_"You got it."_ was Ray's reply before a click told him that Ray had shut him mic off.

Good. The last thing Oliver needed was a half-formed vigilante genius spewing helpful hints into his ear. Knowing that it was wishful thinking aside, Oliver approached the elevator bay and pressed the call button.

Sure enough, all of the elevators were down.

"Stairs?" Oliver asked.

_"Far end of the lobby. Just so you know, those stairs are crawling with heat signatures."_

"I expected as much." Oliver said before taking off a sprint. As he did, he grabbed his bow and Slade's sword and mentally prepared himself for the battle that was about to take place.

Once Oliver reached the door, he took a deep breath before kicking the door in and appearing in the stairway. Sure enough, there were already three mercenaries racing down the stairs towards him.

"Don't look so happy to see me." Oliver taunted before attacking.

The first merc went down instantly from a solid strike to the head. The second tried to swipe at Oliver with his own sword before Oliver matched him with Slade's. Once they were engaged, Oliver reared back and stepped into the man's knee causing it to fold backwards on itself. The third, obviously the smartest of the bunch, waited behind and then attempted to attack when he thought Oliver was too distracted crippling his teammate.

He was wrong.

As he leaned into punch Oliver, Oliver grabbed him by the throat and picked him up before slamming him repeatedly into the wall next to him. As Oliver released him, he quickly collapsed to the ground, forming a small pile of black-clad mercenaries at the bottom of the stairs. Having dealt with them, Oliver took off at a sprint up the stairs.

It wasn't until he reached the tenth floor that Oliver encountered more resistance. This time, instead of fighting them on the stairs, Oliver bolted out on the main floor, rolling through the door and rotating to face the door, bow with arrow notched in hand.

The second the first mercenary broke through the door, he received an arrow to the right shoulder.

Same for the two that followed him.

One of the three tried to be brave and get back up. So, Oliver stepped on his arm, breaking it clean in two. Having dealt with them, Oliver stepped over them and raced back up the stairs. At this point, Oliver wasn't aiming for subtly, something he usually favored over force.

Instead, he wanted these people to know that he was coming. He was a force of nature, a wrecking ball and a destroyer of worlds racing up the stairs and anyone that got into his way would get seriously hurt.

On the 25th floor, Oliver encountered seven mercenaries and again preferred to fight on the open floor. For their troubles, these seven mercenaries got hit with nine arrows, suffered two caved-in knee caps, four broken hands, five broken arms and Oliver was fairly certain that he fractured the skull of two of them. At this point, Oliver didn't care that he was probably causing lasting damage to some of these men.

They had taken his family. What they deserved was a slow and painful death but that was no longer in Oliver's bag of tricks. So, they got debilitating injuries and a collection of massive headaches.

On the 50th floor, they sent only two men but each was armed with automatic rifles. Both of those rifles miraculously were disassembled in front of their very eyes before Oliver strung them up like animal carcasses. When one of them (while hanging upside-down) decided to get mouthy with Oliver, he caved his face in with a one-two combo that would have made Mike Tyson cry like a little girl.

The 75th floor was when Oliver knew that he had frightened whoever it was at the top of this tower. On that floor, there were now ten mercenaries, all of them equipped with the same rifles as the two below on 50. Fortunately for Oliver, none of them were as good as he was. When Oliver shut the power off to the entire floor, they were scared.

When three of them disappeared without anyone seeing him, they were terrified.

And when two more got hit with arrows that no one saw coming, they dropped their weapons and ran  _down_ the stairs towards the ground level. Any other night, Oliver would have gone after them but he had more important things on his mind that evening.

The last bit of resistance that Oliver got was on the 90th floor. There, he was matched up against only three mercenaries but these were obviously the crown jewels of the group. Oliver had to admit that each of them was a master martial artist and certainly gave Oliver a challenge.

Unfortunately for them, they didn't work together. If they had, maybe the outcome would have been different. As it was, they attacked one at a time. The first was a boxer, judging by his stance and quick hands. Fortunately for Oliver, the man's feet were slow, especially in comparison to Oliver's parkour style of fighting.

Oliver dodged a couple quick strikes to the head before reaching out and kicking the man in the side of the leg. While it did no lasting damage, it certainly angered the man. From there, the merc threw two wild haymakers as Oliver's head, neither landing. When Oliver saw his opening, he took it. Retrieving his bow from his back, Oliver swiped at the man's legs.

Countering that momentum, Oliver rotated back and swung, striking the boxer in the face. The resounding crack the contact made was highly satisfying as was the grunt and blood that accompanied it. Now off balance, Oliver was easily able to go to work, beating the boxer into submission with a combination of kicks and bow strikes.

When Oliver was finished, all that was left of the man was a bleeding pile on the ground.

The second man was like Oliver. However, Oliver fought to win, not to look flashy. This man, in contrast, started their fight back attempting to strike over off of a back handspring. Fighting someone like Oliver, this left him to much time to read the attack and respond.

Oliver's response was to grab him out of mid-air and swing him around, using his momentum to throw him at the nearest wall.

Or through the nearest wall as it actually turned out. The man-shaped hole in the wall and the subsequent moaning on the far side of it told Oliver that he wasn't going to need to worry about him anymore.

Finally, the last mercenary. At this point, Oliver was simply done with having to fight these one-off, nameless thugs. He wanted the main men or women involved in this.

So, Oliver simply picked up his bow, notched an arrow and fired, burying the shot directly in the man's right shoulder. A simple punch to the face knocked the last mercenary unconscious. Having taken care of them, Oliver sprinted back to the stairs and made his way up to the 94th floor.

Once he hit that floor, the procedure was the same. He was going to kick every door in until he found them. Of course, there were nearly fifty individual offices on this floor so it was going to take some time but that meant nothing to Oliver.

He was going to find them.

Door after door, Oliver kicked, bashed and threw open only to find nothing. Was it possible that they were wrong? Could it be that this was one giant trap? If so, why? Oliver knew why. If he was in fact wrong and his family wasn't here, he would be broken. It would take more effort to keep back up and to keep searching than anything that Oliver had ever done before.

It wouldn't matter. They would not win. He would break himself to the point of no return if it meant getting his family back.

Eventually, it became that he was kicking in doors and searching on autopilot, repeatedly searching and repeatedly finding nothing.

Then, something.

He kicked a door open and found the blood spattered walls that he remembered from the videos. He saw the bodies of Lyla Diggle and his mother thrown aside. But most importantly, he saw the frame of Roy Harper, collapsed over that table, barely breathing.

For several seconds, Oliver couldn't move. They really were there. Tears threatened to stop him in his place. Internally, he knew this wasn't the end. They still had to make it all the way down the giant skyscraper.

Still, finding any one of them was something, a form of success that Oliver hadn't had in days.

"Roy." Oliver whispered as he stepped forward. His breathing was shallow and weak but his pulse was still strong. Ironically, Oliver imagined that there was some part of the Mirakuru that helped him remain alive for as long as he had.

"Oliver?"

Slowly and weakly, Roy lifted his head and his eyes met Oliver's. For a second, Roy simply stared at Oliver but then, something happened. He started shaking his head.

"No, no, no. He's not here." Roy said softly as he lowered his head. "It's the blood loss. It's just another ghost, another fake."

"Roy."

"I'm not listening."

"Roy." Oliver said again, this time more insistent.

"You can't make me listen!"

"Roy!" Oliver shouted, only this time he slammed his hand on the table.

With that, Roy looked up again, something changed in his eyes.

"Ghosts can't make tables move."

"I'm no ghost." Oliver said with a grin.

"God, Oliver? It's really you?" Roy said, hope appearing in his for the first time, followed by the same tears that Oliver was fighting back. "You're really here?"

"I'm here and I'm getting you all out." Oliver said firmly. "Where are the rest of them?"

"The room across the hall." Roy grinned. "Go see your girls."

"I'll be right back." Oliver said softly.

"I'll hold you to it."

Hurriedly, Oliver stood in place and turned to the door before walking out into the hallway. As Oliver reached for the door handle, his hand froze. What if they had killed the rest of them just to taunt him? What if they had moved them when Oliver had gotten close?

These were questions that would be answered later and only if something bad had happened. If not, Oliver needed to open that door.

So he did.

Slowly, Oliver pushed the door in. As he did, the door revealed them to him one by one.

Felicity, Thea, Laurel, John and Andy. All of them safe, intact. Sure, they all looked like they could use several hot meals, a warm shower and a nap but they were there.

"Oh my god." Thea said softly as her eyes met Oliver's."

"Oliver?" Felicity said as she stood. Quickly, Oliver moved to her and hugged her. In an instant, it was like she was everywhere. He could smell her, feel her hair brush against her face and her hands grip his back.

She was there and she was alive.

But this wasn't the end. They still had to get out. Forcing himself to let her go, Oliver looked around.

"Are you all okay?"

"We're fine." Thea said before she suddenly looked down. "Did you see them?"

"I saw Mom and I saw Lyla." Oliver said knowingly before placing a finger under her chin. "He's still alive."

"What?" Thea replied softly, her voice holding back the hope that Oliver knew she was fighting.

"He's alive. They didn't kill him. They knew that I had already made my way to town and so they challenged me instead."

"Challenged you?" Diggle asked in confusion. "How?"

He knew this wasn't going to go over well.

"They removed his hand and told me that I had until he died of blood loss to find you." Oliver said flatly before turning back to Thea. "He's weak but he's alive. Speaking of which, we need to move. Now."

"We can't." Felicity said with determination.

"Why not?" Oliver asked, confused as to why she didn't want to leave.

"Well, you see-"

Unfortunately, Oliver didn't get to see. Instead, while the rest of them had been talking, a single mercenary had snuck up on them. Normally, Oliver would have heard him but he was distracted by finding his family. While Felicity started her sentence, the merc hit Oliver in the back of the neck with a tranquilizer dart. Within seconds, the room was spinning and Oliver was down.

He could hear the concerned voices of his friends and family as he fell but soon enough, Oliver saw all the rest of them fall as well before he blacked out.

* * *

"Mr. Queen, I do believe it is past time that you woke up."

The first thing Oliver noticed other than the voice was that the room was still spinning and he had a splitting headache. The second thing that Oliver noticed was that the room that was spinning was not the room that he had been in before.

In fact, it was a very different room indeed. This room was one large floor of the skyscraper that he had been in with only the four giant glass windows as walls. The only thing that Oliver could see was a desk that overlooked the window to his right and a long conference style table to his left. At the conference table was each member of his family, obviously tied to the chairs.

However, it was the three other people in the room that Oliver was at least mildly surprised to see.

The first was his former campaign manager and fellow millionaire Roman Sionis, a grim smirk on his face as he saw Oliver tied to a chair in front of him.

The second was not unexpected when he knew who the first was. Maxwell Lord, his opponent in the Starling City Mayor race, sat next to him, the grin on his face wild with joy at the thought of Oliver tied up in front of him.

But it was the third face, and the owner of the voice that had just spoken, that shocked and surprised Oliver.

"You?"

"Yes, Mr. Queen. Me." he said firmly, a wide grin also on his face. His frame was much larger than the other two and the evil look in his eyes was unchallenged by most of the men on the Earth.

However, it was the reflection of the man's head, even in the relative darkness of this room, that gave the man's identity away.

"So, I know why the other two are here. But why are you here, Lex?"

Grinning like a madman, Lex Luthor leaned forward and snarled.

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

* * *

*****This time measurement is based on the low end expectation. So when the voice said two to four hours, Oliver is counting to two hours, not to four.**


	15. The End of One Chapter, The Beginning of Another

Oliver fought the spinning in his head as much as he could, doing his very best to stay upright. Thankfully, being tied to the chair he was seated in was actually helping with that.

"Yes, I would actually like to know." Oliver muttered. Slowly, Oliver looked over and noticed that Roy was slumped over in his chair. Steadying himself, Oliver was able to make out the slow rise and fall of his back, indication that his brother-in-law was still alive.

Silently, Oliver breathed a sigh of relief before turning back to the matter at hand, nearly collapsing from the dizziness he was experiencing.

"Feeling alright, Mr. Queen?" Lex taunted. "I had Mr. Zytle work up a little something. He was more than happy to provide something when he knew that it was for the Green Arrow."

"Speaking of which," Oliver said slowly. "Want to tell me how you figured that out?"

Lex chuckled and leaned back in his chair.

"For once, my intellect had nothing to do with it." Lex said, laughing softly to himself. "Instead, it was a friend of yours."

"A friend?"

"Well, he became a friend of mine." Lex replied. "Originally, I didn't know the identity of my information broker. However, I think he underestimated my own network and deductive abilities."

"Humble, aren't you?" Oliver replied.

"There's no need to be humble when you are, in fact, superior." Lex replied as if it were the simplest thing in the world. "Anyway, after some research, I figured out my source was none other than The Demon's Head himself."

"Ra's?"

"Sure enough. In the weeks before his death, Ra's secretly feared your counterattack. I think he realized that by attacking you so forcefully on your own turf and then not removing you was a mistake. So, to ensure that you would eventually suffer for your role in his defeat, he confided in me with a number of secrets, including the identities of Batman and The Green Arrow."

Suddenly, the memory slowly popped back into Oliver's head. That night two years earlier when Bruce and Oliver had stopped Luthor's sale and demonstration of the Kryptonite asteroid's abilities. Of course he would be petty enough to be upset about that.

Although, Oliver had to admit that their intervention had probably cost him millions.

"The Kryptonite deal." Oliver said aloud. "This is all about that?"

"Of course it is." Lex replied succinctly. "That deal would have cemented the proceeds needed to fund my master plan. See, Mr. Queen, I'm very similar to you. I just think on a grander scale. You funded your campaign for Mayor of that stinkhole, I would have funded my campaign to run the country."

"Run the country?"

"At the time, my name was synonymous with success, wealth and good fortune. After you and Wayne had your way with me and my company, I became known for criminal activity, lies and fraud. Of course, the public does get things right on occasion."

"Yeah, they nailed that one right on the head." Oliver said before thinking of something. "Speaking of which, how are you not in jail?"

"Money." Lex answered. "Throw enough of it around and suddenly the charges just couldn't stick."

"Figured as much." Oliver said as his head suddenly swam, causing his chin to drop until his chest. It took all the willpower Oliver possessed not to throw up right then and there.

"I see that you're enjoying the side effects of that particular concoction." Lex replied, finally standing in place. As Oliver struggled to raise his head, he had to admit to being impressed with Lex's size. Despite being among the wealthiest men in the country, Oliver and Lex had never met face-to-face until this moment. Lex cut an imposing figure. He was obviously in very good shape and that in combination with the thousand dollar suit and the bald head made him a menacing figure.

It's no wonder that everyone had thought him to be a bit of a thug even prior to Bruce and Oliver exposing him.

The story of Lex Luthor was well known to all. Born of two factory workers, both of his parents died as a result of asbestos in the factory. When the lawyers won their lawsuit with the company, Luthor was given a $30,000 check at age 13. Blessed with a genius intellect and a sudden influx of wealth, Lex graduated from high school at 15 and college at 17.

At that point, that $30,000 was already nearly a million dollars in wealth. At that point, Luthor founded the beginning of what would become LexCorp, specializing in aerospace engineering and design. Within a year, the company was racking in million dollar profit margins. Within five, it was a fortune 500 company and at 25, Lex Luthor became the world's youngest self-made billionaire.

The dark side of Luthor's story was that it was right about this time that he started trading stock secrets for favors. Those favors turned into his own personal black market which he continued to run even after the secrets when dry and his neat for more money desisted. With a year of becoming a billionaire, he had made his second and third billion selling illegal technologies and state secrets to terrorist organizations in the Middle East and Africa. If there was a terrorist threat out there in the world, chances are that they had something that had been supplied by Lex Luthor at some point.

Then, he got busted trying to sell a large block of Kryptonite by The Batman and The Green Arrow. While the charges never stuck (for reasons that had just been explained), it ruined his reputation and nearly destroyed his company. Apparently, it hadn't been successful.

At least not entirely.

"What is this?" Oliver asked referring to whatever poison was running through his veins.

"A particular strain of Vertigo that I think you are going to find just lovely." Lex preened. "As you fight it, the effects will continue to increase. For the average person, it will take anywhere from six to twelve hours for you to fight it out of your system. By that point, I plan for you to be plenty insane. Insane enough that you'll be the one to put the arrow into Ms. Smoak here."

"What?" Oliver asked in shock.

Lex laughed at Oliver as he leaned against the desk behind him.

"The plan was never to kill you, Oliver. That would have been too simple and I don't do anything simple. Instead, we've been killing off each member of your family. Eventually, you'll get crazy enough that we'll be able to convince you that Felicity here is a threat. When that happens, you'll be the one to fire the arrow that kills her. At that point, we'll leave you here and call the police. They'll find you with your entire family dead and there will be no one other than yourself to blame."

"A simple toxscreen will clear me."

"It would." Lex admitted. "If this version of Vertigo showed up in a drug test, which it doesn't."

"Great." Oliver muttered, realizing just how far in he was. For the first time in a long time, this wasn't a threat he could deal with by shooting arrows at it.

It wasn't one he could really out-think either.

This was going to require something different.

Feeling the weight of the drug, Oliver decided to stop fighting it for the time being, passing out with the voices of his family echoing in his ear.

* * *

_Oliver, Oliver, Oliver, Oliver..._

"Who's there?" Oliver asked as he raised his head to see that the room around him had...disappeared? In fact, everything had disappeared. All that remained was a void, a lack of everything.

Well, not quite everything. In the distance, Oliver noticed a blur. It was small at first but as time went on, it got larger. Or closer. Honestly, Oliver wasn't really sure.

_Oliver, Oliver, Oliver, Oliver..._

"Is someone there?" Oliver asked as he heard that voice again. Great, now he was hearing things.

That blur that had been a blur was now more than that. It was a person but it was still too small or too far away for Oliver to recognize who it was. It was in that moment that Oliver realized the chair was gone.

As was his Arrow-gear, replaced by the attire that he had worn on the island. His hair was long again, his beard untamed. He was as he was when he had finally been found on that dreadful island, hopeless and certain that he was going to die on that island.

Secretly, Oliver knew that if someone hadn't found him soon, he may have taken his own life. After years of destroying himself on Lian Yu and in Hong Kong and Moscow, Oliver Queen didn't exist anymore. He was a shell and that shell had no desire to live.

Not until he saw that boat.

Then, the thought of returning to Starling City was too much for Oliver to ignore.

Finally, Oliver could see that the person was someone he knew well. Very well.

"Dad?"

_Oliver, Oliver, Oliver, Oliver..._

"Dad? Why are you here?" Oliver said as his father stopped moving, stopping just a few feet away from him.

 _"am i really here"_ his father asked uncertain.

"You can't be." Oliver realized. "You're dead. You died on the raft."

_"not true"_

"What?" Oliver asked as his father approached him, pointing at his chest.

 _"i live there as does your mother and tommy and everyone else you've lost"_ his father said, his face bright with joy.  _"we've never left you and we never will"_

"Why are you here?"

_"because you are about to see some terrible things"_

"Because of the drug?"

_"yes"_

"What can I do to fight it?" Oliver asked desperately.

 _"remember that we're all right there"_ his father said, pointing to his chest again.  _"we love you son"_

"I love you too."

_"things are going to get tough tougher than you've ever faced"_

"You'll be with me?" Oliver asked softly, his hand phasing through his father as he reached forward to touch him.

_"all of us always"_

* * *

Oliver was aware that it had been an apparition, a hallucination.

It also wasn't wrong.

Over what Oliver could only assume were the next few hours, Oliver saw some of the most horrible images he could imagine. He saw Laurel and Sara killing each other, fighting over their place as The Canary. He saw Felicity leaving again. His father lectured him for being selfish enough to allow him to kill himself.

Yao Fei screamed at him for being weak, for forgetting to survive.

Shado cried for her father, blaming him for both of their deaths.

Felicity killed Laurel because she thought that Oliver loved her instead.

Roy, in an anger induced rage, literally pulled his sister apart with his bare hands, madness written across his face the whole time.

But the entire time, Oliver was aware of two things. First, these were fakes, figments of his imagination. Secondly, if Oliver focused very hard, he could see his family through the images, watching him as he suffered.

More images plagued him as he did his best to ignore the horror and the worry that his mind was plaguing him with.

He saw his family inside the room they were kept captive in, each of them beheaded, their heads rolling to his feet at the same time. Suddenly, their eyes flashed open and the mouths spoke, cursing Oliver for his failures.

_You didn't save us. Why? You let us die. Why? You are nothing. That's why._

Over and over again, they repeated these words. Over and over again, he watched as the disembodied head of his best friends and family taunted him for failing.

And slowly but surely, Oliver felt himself listening. Try as he might, Oliver couldn't fight it anymore. He knew they were right. He was a failure. He couldn't even protect his family. They were going to die and he was going to end up doing it himself. There was nothing he could do.

..

..

..

_"we're right here."_

Hours later, after watching his family's memory torment him over and over and over again, he heard his father's voice. It was faint, weakened by the images that he had seen.

But it was there. He could almost feel the warmth in his heart.

_"we're right here."_

Robert Queen.

Moira Queen.

Lyla Diggle.

Tommy Merlyn.

Quentin Lance.

Slade Wilson.

But not just those that had died, he had living family too.

Diggle.

Snapper.

Thea.

Ray.

Cole.

Roy.

Barry.

Caitlin.

Cisco.

Felicity.

Felicity.

Felicity.

Suddenly, in between the horror and the fear in the images, there was a light.

She had always been his light, his rock and his hope. Even when he didn't realize that's what she was, before he realized just how much he loved her, she was there for him.

...

...

...

Oliver sat in the window seat at the coffee shop he had asked her to come to. For some reason, this girl had him a bit on edge. No matter what lie he had practice before he had approached her, it went out the window when she smiled at him. Regardless of what Oliver said, this girl affected him.

He just wasn't sure why.

It was bothering him.

"Hi."

Suddenly, Oliver turned and realized that in his thoughts, he had hadn't realized that she was there.

"Hi." Oliver replied, hoping that he sounded normal.

"Thanks for meeting me. I was nervous to come to your house." Felicity said, all very fast.

"OK?"

The next question was something that Oliver had not been expecting.

"Can I trust you?" Felicity asked. Before Oliver could answer her question, she continued. "I'm not an idiot. You've dropped some fairly ridiculous lies on me and yet...I still feel like I can trust you."

Oliver was aware that she had seen through him. It was only a matter of time before someone as brilliant as her figured it out. He needed to stay away from her. It was what was best for her.

"Why is that?"

For some reason, Oliver thought that playing things coy was the way to go.

"I have one of those faces." Oliver replied. When he realized that she was disappointed with his answer, he places his hand on hers and looked her in the eyes. "Sorry. Yes, you can trust me."

...

...

...

In that moment, a decision was made by both of them. Over the years, there had been fights and disagreements. Hell, she'd disappeared to Gotham City for two years.

But there was always trust.

And she was always his light.

With that realization, Oliver felt the hold of the drug break. However, Oliver knew that he couldn't afford to let Lex see this.

So, Oliver continued to fake the hallucinations and waited.

Waited for an opening.

* * *

About an hour later, Oliver stopped pretending to hallucinate, giving him the appearance of being lucid for the time being. He didn't dare give his family some kind of sign that he was in fact okay lest Lex catch on.

"So, Lex, I get that you are doing this because I prevented you from becoming President." Oliver said, pretending to struggle through his words. "But you two?"

Lord was the first to answer.

"At my age, political aspirations are limited. People fear that if they invest in a candidate of my age, that I'll die before things actually work out."

"So I beat you. You're angry and you decided to get back at me by having me murder my entire family."

"It's going to lead to an interm election in two years. I hear they made Ross your replacement." Lord sneered. "I can beat him and when I do that, I can work my way straight up to governor with no problems."

"And you?" Oliver replied turning to Sionis.

"It's pretty simple, Queen. I don't like you. I made you a candidate and I forced being a winner down your throat. So when we won, you ditched me and then tried to threaten me. That's my game, Queen. It's why I don't have much of a family as you so kindly reminded me. You can't threaten someone who doesn't care about anyone."

"So two flimsy reasons." Oliver replied softly. "I imagine that alone neither of you would have done anything. This means that Lex found out about your grudges against me and decided to us your stupidity against you and me."

"Excuse me?" Lord challenged, instantly raising to his feet.

"The entire time, the pair of you have been the faces. People have seen you. Meanwhile, he's staying in Metropolis and is providing money from one of his numerous off shore accounts that we could never trace. If you had stopped to think for about four seconds, you would have realized that he was playing you. Either way, this works out perfectly for him. If I end up snapping, he wins. If I don't and someone catches you, the only proof that anyone was involved leads back to the two of you."

Suddenly, both of them realized that they had been played like a fiddle by the genius maestro in between them. For his part, Lex didn't look particularly concerned.

"Do you really think that I planned on getting caught, Mr. Queen?"

"I don't." Oliver admitted. "I just have one question: how did you hack my system?"

"I was wondering when we were going to get around to that." Lex smirked. "It was really fairly simple. All we had to do was take the last two years and develop the world's greatest AI. Once we did that, then all we had to do was track down your IP address and we were in."

"An AI? A rogue AI that's been attacking various government systems within the last several months?"

"I see that our good friends at ARGUS have been speaking with you." Lex replied calmly. "Yes, that particular AI. It's really quite something, isn't it? We discovered parts of an AI on an abandoned space craft floating in the deep reaches of space."

"Abandoned space craft? What were you looking for?"

"Superman's home planet." Lex replied simply before standing up. "You see, the moment he appeared, I made it my business to know where he had come from. So, using the resources at my disposal, I was able to track Superman's existence and stories of his variety across the world. In the end, all leads aimed to Smallville, Kansas and a young boy found there. There are no birth records for him and the adoption agency that his family used was later revealed to be a fraud designed to give refugee children homes."

"How does Superman's identity have anything to with an AI?"

Slowly, Luthor marched back around the table and leaned towards Oliver's ear.

"Because there is a record of a massive meteor strike on that town the day before Clark Kent was found." he whispered. "Once I found that out, I was able to mathematically backtrace the meteor to a planet that destroyed decades ago, right about the same time that a ship travelling at the exact speed of that meteor would need to leave."

Luthor knew that Kent was an alien. Honestly, it wasn't that much of a surprise. Lex was one of the best minds known to the world. It was just unfortunate that he had chosen to destroy the world with his intellect rather than help it.

"Once I knew that Kent was not of this planet, I secretly commissioned a series of exploratory scans of the surrounding areas. In the debris of the planet was the existence of a second pod, similar to the one Kent had to have used. I recovered the pod and brought it here. On board was a simple computer and a locked compartment. While we still have been unable to open the locked compartment, we were able to retrofit the AI to work with our systems. It operates at a speed several times faster than any system known to man and within the next few weeks, I will have control over every single computer system in the world. With that control, I will be able to fast track my planetary control once more. Defy me and I turn your country back to the Dark Ages."

"You had time to plan that and kidnap my family at the same time?" Oliver taunted.

"Honestly, the AI has been doing most of the work." Lex admitted before leaning over, his face now inches from Oliver's. "Plus, I thought that you need a more  _personal_ touch."

Suddenly, Oliver felt another wave of whatever Luthor had drugged him with. It was a couple seconds before Oliver saw the syringe in Luthor's hand.

"Try and fight this dose, Mr. Queen."

* * *

Fight it, he did. Unfortunately, this second dose meant that he was forced to watch all of the same horrible images he had fought off hours earlier. When Oliver did finally break through these images, he realized that he had lost all sense of time. Shaking his head, Oliver fought to break free from the effects of the drug and prayed that he wasn't too late.

He knew that too much of this and even he wouldn't be able to fight the aftermath.

Slowly, Oliver opened his eyes and saw the room as he'd seen it before. However, his three captors had moved. Now, instead of at the table to his right, they were all standing on the far end of the room, staring out the window, discussing something in hushed voices. Seeing that they were far away, Oliver looked over at his family. Most of them were asleep in their chairs.

Roy wasn't moving.

"NO!" Oliver shouted as he realized that the blood on the table was from what was left of Roy's arm. At the sound of his voice, everyone in the room snapped awake, their eyes locked on Oliver in fear.

Fear that he had succumb to the drug in his system.

Thankfully, he hadn't.

But more so, Oliver was thankful for the slight movement he saw when everyone else moved. That movement belonged to Roy Harper who shifted slightly in his seat. He was obviously not strong enough to move to much but he was still alive.

"How is he doing?" Oliver whispered to his sister.

"Not good, Ollie. We need to get him out of here."

At this point, Luthor and his cronies had approached Oliver and his family. Specifically, he approached Roy.

"He's not looking very good, is he Mr. Queen?"

"You let them go, Luthor. Your fight is with me." Oliver growled, still weakened from the double dose of drugs floating through his system.

"That's not how I play this game, Mr. Queen. When you wrong me, it's as if everything and everyone you've ever loved as wronged me too. I know, I'm a bit sensitive about these things. The good thing is that they happen more than once. You've had your one time and now, it's my turn to make sure that you  _never_ wrong me again."

Suddenly, a gun appeared in Lex's right hand, aimed directly at Roy's head. The moment Oliver saw the gun, he acted regardless of whether this would work or not. A swift pull of his thumb dislocated it, followed by a quick pull of his other hand.

One hand free, Oliver quickly rolled to the ground, pulling his other hand out of the bindings before resetting his thumb. His last motion was to grab a fletchette and fire, hitting the gun and knocking it from Luthor's hand.

From the very moment that Oliver had acted, more of the mercenaries flooded into the room. Looking around, Oliver saw his bow on the opposite side of the room.

That was out of the question.

As the mercenaries surrounded him, Oliver quickly took count. There were fourteen of them. Thankfully, none of them brought guns to this fight but that just meant that it was fourteen mercenaries against one drugged, very pissed off vigilante.

He'd take those odds any day of the week.

Instantly, Oliver threw a fletchette at the leg of his closest enemy. With a groan, he fell to the floor.

Thirteen left.

Two of them charged Oliver. After a quick succession of dodging several of their blows, Oliver grabbed each of their heads and smashed them together. As they fell to the floor, Oliver heard the clatter of teeth hitting the hard tile.

Eleven left.

A brave merc attacked solo next. He was good. Oliver was better. After a brief exchange, Oliver grabbed the man's arm with his left before dropping his right elbow straight through the forearm, breaking it basically in two. With a cry, the man sagged to the floor in pain.

Ten left.

The next opponent was just plain stupid. He was obviously terrified and approached Oliver with no real plan.

So, Oliver punched him in the face, instantly rendering him unconscious.

Nine left.

As Oliver had fought, he had been pushed backwards further and further. While he was constantly winning, he had to play a bit of defense at the onset of each separate encounter. Normally, this wouldn't have matter. However, this particular time, it did.

It mattered because with nine opponents left, they had driven him back towards the table where his gear was held. So, Oliver dove backwards, rolling over the table and grabbing his bow and quiver in one motion. As Oliver hit the floor, he flung the quiver over his shoulder before grabbing a single arrow and lining it up.

The first merc he hit, the arrow went straight through the kneecap.

Eight left.

The second hit directly in the right shoulder.

Seven left.

Kneecap.

Six left.

Right shoulder.

Five left.

Left arm.

Four left.

Left and right arms.

Three left.

Left hip.

Two left.

Left and right kneecaps.

One left.

Right foot.

None left.

Finally, Oliver grabbed another arrow from his quiver and lined up his shot directly at Luthor, who had remained in place as Oliver single-handedly destroyed his army.

"We're leaving."

"I think not." Lord said as he stepped out from behind Luthor, armed as well. As he stepped forward, he grabbed another gun. The first he placed just behind Roy's ear, the second he aimed at Diggle's. "These were the next two on the list. Should I do them in order or out of order? It's your choice, Oliver."

"Put the guns down!" Oliver roared. This was an awful situation. He couldn't risk shooting the guns. His aim still was affected slightly by the drug in his system. A hair off and he killed one of his friends. Even if he did manage to hit one gun, Lord could always fire the other.

"I don't think so." Lord smirked. "I think I'm going to kill both of your friends."

Oliver went to speak when he heard the sound of the glass window behind him shattering. Without even turning around, Oliver knew what it was.

"Superman, I have this under control." Oliver growled, severely annoyed at Kent's interference.

"What did I tell you?" Kent replied softly. "This is not how we do things in my city."

"I'm not going to kill him. I'm just going to make him regret the decisions he's made in his life recently."

"We don't torture and we don't maim and we don't kill."

"You certainly do take all the fun out of things, don't you Superman?" Sionis cackled. "Just kill them. I want to watch Queen squirm again."

"You will do no such thing!" Kent boomed. "Maxwell Lord, Lex Luthor and Roman Sionis: you are all under arrest. Now put the guns down and no one has to get hurt."

Suddenly, Lord pulled the hammer on the gun aimed at Diggle.

"The boy is going to die anyway. Let's kill the driver."

"You will die if you pull that trigger." Oliver said evenly.

"Doubtful. The Big Blue Boy Scout won't let you." Lord said, taunting him by pressing the gun even harder into Diggle's temple. "I guess Mr. Diggle here is just going to have to die."

What happened next felt like it happened in slow motion. Making his decision, Oliver released his arrow, aimed directly in between Maxwell Lord's eyes. As the arrow was released, Oliver saw Kent start to move towards the arrow, seeking to catch it before any damage could be done.

Thankfully, Oliver had a trick up his sleeve. Reaching into his quiver, Oliver grabbed and fired a very specific arrow. This arrow was laced with Kryptonite but rather than seeking to embed the rock into Superman, it left a trail of Kryptonite dust in its wake. It wouldn't stop Kent permanently but that wasn't the plan.

The plan was to slow him down for just long enough.

And it did.

As Kent crossed the Kryptonite trail, he stopped and quickly started to gag on the dust. That was all the time that arrow needed to strike Maxwell Lord, piercing his skull. Instantly, his body froze before the momentum of the arrow carried his body backwards, falling spread eagle to the floor, his eyes locked on the ceiling.

Smirking, Oliver turned and leveled his arrow at Luthor. He had no intention of killing him. Killing Lord had been a choice he had been forced to make. Unfortunately for Oliver Queen, one of the few powers that Clark Kent did not possess was telepathy.

So, as Oliver went to order Lex back to his seat, he suddenly felt a prick of pressure against his chest.

That prick of pressure threw him against the glass wall at the far end of the building. Thankfully, it was crash resistant glass and Oliver didn't go through.

Unfortunately, it was crash resistant glass and Oliver didn't go through which meant that it was basically like being thrown into a wall at forty miles per hour. Thankfully, he didn't get much chance to ache as the contact caused him to pass out immediately.

* * *

Moments later, Oliver awoke to a very strange scene. Apparently, in some fit of madness, Sionis thought he could take on Superman. Considering Sionis had just watched as he literally threw one of the most dangerous men in the world across a skyscraper floor with a flick of his finger, Oliver judged this as a poor idea.

He was right.

Kent was normally pretty calm about things. He knew that he overpowered everyone and he typically remembered that. However, there were the occasional times when Kent forgot just how powerful he was.

This was one of those times.

With a single strike, Kent threw Sionis up into the pipes on the ceiling. As Sionis struck, one of the pipes for the hot water in the building broke. When Roman hit the ground, that water hit him directly in the face. Instantly, the boiling hot water scaled his face and before Kent could get to him and pull him out, his face had nearly melted off. His screams echoed through the room until Kent reached down and softly punched him in the face.

That knocked him unconscious.

Slowly, Oliver made his way to his feet, gingerly feeling how he felt. The answer was pretty simple: he felt terrible. Between the drug and the quick thrashing Clark had given him, he would have been surprised if he felt any other way.

Once he was back on his feet, Oliver approached Superman.

"If you could not do that again, that would be great." Oliver said, rubbing his head softly.

"There are rules in my city."

"And there are rules for my family." Oliver growled back. "I don't care where I am, they take precedent."

"You would defy my rules?"

"You're an alien, Clark, not a god." Oliver reminded him before pulling something out of his quiver. "Besides, you gave me something to stop you if I needed."

"You brought that with you?" Clark asked in shock.

"Remember that I used the non-lethal one this time." Oliver said as he put the Kryptonite arrow that Clark had given him back in its place. "The next time you get between me and my family's safety, I won't pick that one."

"Fine." Clark growled before turning to Luthor. "So what do you want to do about him?"

"I want to give him a chance to get out."

"What?" Clark and Lex said in unison.

"Here's the deal, Luthor: You fight me. If you win, Clark will let you walk out. If I win, I'm going to throw you in the deepest, darkest hole I can find. There will be no amount of money that will get you out because there is no legal system where I'm sending you."

"You're serious?" Lex asked.

"This is how I handle things." Oliver said simply. "I'm not a superbeing like Clark or a genius like Bruce. I'm a warrior with a family. If you think you can beat me, give it your best shot."

"So be it." Lex said as he removed his jacket. Oliver pulled his back so that his head was shown to the rest of the room. This wasn't some supervillain vs. The Green Arrow.

This was Lex Luthor vs. Oliver Queen.

As Lex finished rolling his sleeves up, Oliver realized that he had been very correct about Luthor. The man was in phenomenal shape and was several inches bigger than Oliver. However, more than anything, Oliver knew that size didn't win a battle.

This one would be no different.

Luthor's fighting "style" (if you could call it that) was to be as destructive with a single strike as he could possibly be, A fairly decent idea for a man of his size. For any normal person, a single strike from Luthor would have you either down or at the very least, in a lot of pain.

The fact of the matter was that Oliver Queen was no normal person. For a few minutes, Oliver didn't even bother striking. All he did was dodge the wild, heavy attacks from his opponent. This strategy succeeded in doing two things.

First, it was fairly obviously that while Luthor was in good shape, he was in great  _condition._ About a minute into the fight, he had already slowed down. Two minutes in, his punches were losing power and three minutes in, he was struggling to even put together something that could be considered a meaningful combination.

The second thing Oliver's strategy did was make Lex mad. As Lex continued to miss and Oliver continued to not strike him, Lex lashed out more and more, seeking to throw things at Oliver and punch even more wildly. While Lex may have been smart, he wasn't infallible and this was proof.

After four minutes, he was angry and weak.

Time for Oliver's rebuttal.

His strike was a quick punch to the center of Lex's chest. Within a second, Lex dropped to his knees, sucking in air as his lungs worked to fill themselves again. From there, Oliver grabbed Lex's right arm and pulled it behind him, literally breaking the man's shoulder.

Howling in pain and unable to breath, Lex was still stubborn enough to work his way back to his feet.

His mistake.

A mammoth attack from Lex's left was quickly dodged followed by a quick stab with Oliver's left foot. The strike hit Lex's right knee and caused it to bend backwards, breaking the kneecap and destroying all of the tendons in his knee. With his right arm and leg effectively useless, Oliver went to town. Grabbing Slade's sword, Oliver proceeded to slice Lex repeatedly. None of the gashes were too deep and none of them would cause any lasting damage.

But they would all hurt like hell.

Finally, Lex just couldn't find anymore. In pain and winded, Oliver watched as he dropped to the ground. Sheathing his sword, Oliver marched over to him.

"Remember, Luthor, when you think back on this day. I could have killed you, maimed you, caused some sort of permanent damage or done whatever I wanted with you." Oliver said before looking over at Kent. "He wouldn't have been able to stop me, not until you were already dead."

"You're dead now, Queen." Lex growled. "I know people who can get to you before you would ever realize I'm coming."

"And you'll call them off." Oliver ordered. "Where you're going, I'm the only person that can get to you. Where you're going, I have memorized front to back. Each and every day you spend there will be hell and if so much as a single hair on any of their heads is disturbed, I will make it even worse for you."

"We'll see."

"We will." Oliver said before landing a crushing haymaker that knocked the mad genius unconscious. With that, Oliver quickly pulled out his phone and dialed. "Trevor, I've got a pick up for you. The supermax that Waller had been talking about, we're going to need it."

* * *

With his three captors dealt with, Oliver quickly raced over to his family. The first person he checked on was Roy. He was unconscious but his breathing was pretty strong and steady. Looking up, Oliver locked eyes with Clark.

"I've got him."

"Get his gear off of him and take him in as a John Doe." Oliver requested.

"I can do that." Clark said as he picked up Roy before slowly flying out the window with him.

Having handled Roy's condition, Oliver went about releasing each family member. Andy was the first to be released. Instantly, the boy jumped up into Oliver's arms.

"I know Mom isn't coming back." Andy said strongly into Oliver's ear.

"I'm so sorry." Oliver whispered back to the boy.

"Mom told me to be strong." Andy said as he pulled away. "I will. For her."

"She would be very proud of you." Oliver replied, tears forming in his eyes as he watched the strength of the boy in front of him.

The next person that Oliver cut loose was Laurel. A silent embrace was all they had time for before Oliver moved to John. Based on John's condition, he seemed to have been the most resistant of the captives, something that did not surprise Oliver at all.

"You going to be alright?" Diggle asked, rubbing his wrists as the bonds fell free.

"I should be asking you that." Oliver said softly as he placed a hand on the man's shoulder. "How are you holding up?"

"She told you?" was John's strange reply. It took a second for Oliver to remember what he was talking about.

"Yes, she told me. I knew she was remarkable but I really had no idea."

"We were both lucky to have her for the time we did." Diggle replied, tears streaming down his face. "I'm sorry about your mother."

"Thanks."

"Did you and her reconcile?"

"I suppose you could say that." Oliver answered cryptically.

Shaking Diggle's hand, Oliver quickly released the bonds of his sister before grabbing her and pulling her in close. At this point, he couldn't hold back anymore and the tears flowed freely.

"I love you so much, Ollie." Thea whispered in his ears before pulling away to look into his eyes. "You are the strongest and bravest man I've ever known."

"Supported by the strongest and bravest family possible."

"Something like that." Thea said, tears falling down her face. "Did she die quickly?"

"I-I don't know what to say."

"The truth."

"She's didn't die quickly and she suffered." Oliver said honestly before leveling his eyes at his sisters'. "But I think she was happy again."

"Good." Thea said before breaking into her own quiet sobs.

With the rest of them intact, Oliver turned to Felicity last. As he knelt down in front of her to cut her bonds free, Oliver felt Felicity lean forward and kiss him on the forehead.

"I'm not leaving you, Oliver Queen." she said softly. "I told you that after Ra's and I meant it."

"I wasn't about to let you go." Oliver said as he took Felicity by her hands and pulled her to her feet. "I've hardly slept looking for you."

"I can tell." Felicity whispered before leaning into hug Oliver. As she did, Oliver couldn't help but drink in her presence, everything about her in that moment was everything he needed. She was back in his arms again and this time, there were no crazy mercenaries hiding in the shadow to tranq dart him.

"We need to get out of here." Oliver muttered. Just as Oliver said the words, Felicity stumbled back away from him. "Felicity?"

"Shit." she muttered before covering her mouth. "I did not say that. I do not say those things. I mean I did say that and I've said it before but I try really hard not to say those things. Not that I have a problem with them, they're just a little harsh for me and-"

Felicity was interrupted by Oliver's lips on hers. Regardless of whatever she was about to tell him, he couldn't have been more in love with her in all of her rambling glory that he was right now.

"You were saying?" Oliver said as they separated.

"We can't leave." Felicity said softly. "There's something I have to do first."

"OK?"

"Follow me." Felicity ordered before taking off. As she did, Oliver followed her as she marched down the stairs and back to the area they had been before. They walked passed the room they had been held in and the execution room to the room next to them. Slowly, Felicity tried the doorknob.

Locked.

"A little help?" Felicity smiled up at Oliver.

"I thought you'd never ask."

With one well placed kick, the door crashed open. What Oliver and the rest of his family found inside was a surprise but only for a second. On the outsides of the room, floor to ceiling, were computer servers. However, it was the front server that Oliver noticed.

He noticed it because it wasn't really a server at all, although based on the wires connected to it and Felicity's interest in that, that's probably what it acted as.

He noticed it because it was part of what Oliver guessed was a Kryptonian space pod.

"This is the AI Luthor was talking about." Oliver muttered.

"Yes." Felicity confirmed. "See, Diggle may have looked like the most rebellious prisoner here but-"

"It was definitely Felicity." Thea finished. "She broke out of the room. Twice."

"Are you serious?" Oliver asked, turning to Felicity with some confusing mixture of admiration and condemnation.

"It would have been three times if the rest of them hadn't convinced me to stop." Felicity admitted, her face slowly turning red. "Anyway, I mostly did it so that I could find out where we were but one of the times I was out, I heard them talking about the server room."

"You saw the wires on the floor running from the other room into here and made the connection."

"Not half bad, Mr. Queen." Felicity said softly.

"Well, I did have to figure out how to find you without your brilliance."

"True, true." Felicity smirked. "Actually, I overheard them saying which room it was exactly."

"Of course." Oliver chuckled to himself before changing the topic. "So, this AI, just how bad is it?"

"Bad. We're dealing with tech that we barely know how to control." Felicity said, a true look of worry in her eyes. "Ever since I found out that Waller was murdered for going after a rogue AI, I've been keeping an eye out for anything."

"I'm assuming that something came up?"

"That's the thing: I found absolutely nothing."

"Nothing?" Diggle asked. "How is that possible? You're you."

"Thank you for the vote of confidence." Felicity replied graciously before turning back to Oliver. "Whatever Waller was looking into was beyond Classified, beyond Top Secret. If there are files on it, they're likely paper files with Waller's office itself. I didn't have enough on it to suggest that we actually break into her former office and look into it, especially since I didn't know what we were looking for."

"Damn." Oliver muttered. "Colonel Trevor came to the house. He basically laid it on the line that I needed to find or else bad things were going to happen."

"How bad has it gotten?"

"It's into or is working its way into every governmental system on the planet." Oliver said shortly.

"What could that do?" Laurel asked.

"From what Trevor said, it was obviously not good."

"No." Felicity said softly. "It's really bad. Over the last four or five years, we've centralized much of the utilities along with much of the data stored on the internet. From what Luthor said, he intended to use that to basically create leverage to ransom the world itself."

"You give me control or I wipe out your bank accounts, that sort of thing?" Oliver asked.

"Worse. You give me control or I shut off your entire country's power. Continue to resist and gas is next with water to follow. Basically, if we wouldn't have been able to stop him, he would have sent the entire planet back to the Stone Age."

"Great. At least we were able to stop the madman." Thea said softly before turning to Oliver. "Where are you sending him anyway?"

"Waller created a supermax prison on Lian Yu. He'll spend the rest of his life in a hole on hell on Earth."

"Seems fitting." Diggle said softly. As Diggle spoke, Oliver saw Clark fly in the back of the room.

"What are you still doing here?" Clark asked. "I figured you would be long gone by then."

"I'm not exactly sure what we're still doing here." Oliver realized aloud before turning to Felicity. "Ms. Smoak, what are we still doing here?"

It took Oliver a minute to realize that during their entire conversion, she had been typing frantically into the console attached to the pod.

"Well, I've been spending the last several minutes attempting to reverse the activity of this AI." Felicity said quickly. "So far, it seems that I've been remotely successful in blocking its access to the United States, Brazil and China with Japan on the waaaaaayyy...now."

"You did all that in five minutes."

"Technically, it took us a minute to get down here so I did it in four." Felicity bragged before turning back to Clark. "Honestly, I'm stronger on a keyboard than you are in real life."

"I don't doubt it." Clark said as he looked on in amazement.

Now he knew how Oliver felt. Each and every time that Felicity would do something like this, it just amazed him. She was able to locate people, information and secrets that were meant to be hidden before some people even knew that they were supposed to be hidden in the first place.

It was what made Oliver Queen and The Green Arrow so successful.

Suddenly, Oliver watched as Felicity's face changed.

"What's wrong?"

"Something's blocking me." Felicity growled, doing her own impression of Oliver's "Arrow-voice."

"That's possible."

"It's possible." she admitted. "It just exceedingly unlikely."

For the next several minutes, Felicity worked in silence with the exception of a few grunts of frustration. As he looked on, Oliver realized that something was very wrong. People could beat Felicity once. She wasn't perfect despite her genius and technical ability. However, for someone to beat her consistently was rare.

And that's what Team Arrow was watching.

She was losing.

Finally, her hands dropped from the keyboard.

"I've been blocked out." she said dejectedly. "I can't get into the system anymore."

"What could do that?"

**"I COULD."**

Oliver could live to be a thousand years old and he didn't think he could forget the creepy, disembodied voice that narrated the executions of Lyla Diggle and his mother.

"What are you!?" Felicity shouted, a rage that Oliver rarely saw bubbling to the surface.

**"I AM MORE THAN A SIMPLE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, FELICITY MEGHAN SMOAK."**

"That much is pretty obvious." Felicity sassed. "Seriously though, what are you?"

**"I WILL TELL YOU A STORY AND YOU WILL UNDERSTAND. 33 EARTH YEARS AGO, THE PLANET KRYPTON EXPLODED. THIRTY EARTH YEARS PRIOR TO THAT, THERE WAS A SCIENTIST ON THE PLANET. THIS SCIENTIST SPECIALIZED IN WHAT YOU WOULD CALL GEOTHERMAL ENERGY OR THE USE OF THE PLANET'S NATURAL HEAT AS AN ENERGY SOURCE. FOR A MILLENNIUM, THIS SCIENTIST HAD EXPLORED THE GALAXY, EXPERIMENTING ON JUVENILE AND UNINHABITED WORLDS. OVER TIME, THE HIGH COUNCIL OF KRYPTON DECIDED THAT HIS EXPERIMENTS HAD BECOME TOO EXTREME, HIS METHODS UNSTABLE. AS SUCH, THEY GROUNDED HIM, LOCKING HIM IN HIS LABORATORY ON KRYPTON AND FORCING HIM TO ENGAGE IN MENIAL ACTIVITIES."**

Something about this whole story seemed off to Oliver. It had already said that it wasn't an AI.

So what was it?"

**"SO, THIRTY YEARS PRIOR THE DESTRUCTION OF KRYPTON, HE BEGAN HIS EXPERIMENTS ANEW, USING KRYTPON ITSELF AS HIS SUBJECT. FOR THREE DECADES, HE WORKED. HIS THEORIES WERE SOUND AND HIS WORK WAS BEGINNING TO PAY OFF. BUT THE SCIENTIST HAD NOT CALCULATED ON THE TOLL IT WOULD TAKE ON HIS PLANET. SLOWLY, THE PLANET'S CORE BEGAN TO DIE AND WITH IT, THE CIVILITY OF CULTURE ON KRYPTON WENT AS WELL. REALIZING THAT HE WOULD BE BLAMED FOR THE DEATH OF HIS PLANET, HE STOLE SEVERAL RESEARCH PROJECTS OF OTHER AFFLUENT SCIENTIST ON THE PLANET BEFORE ESCAPING IN THE POD YOU SEE BEFORE YOU."**

"Escaping in this pod? There's no body in here." Oliver said softly. "How is that possible?"

**"THE WORK OF ONE OF THE OTHER SCIENTISTS INCLUDED THE ABILITY TO TRANSFER CONSCIOUSNESS INTO A COMPUTER SYSTEM."**

If that was true, then this voice was not just an AI and not just a computer system at all.

"You're an actual Kryptonian." Oliver said, barely believing the words that were coming out his mouth. "You're the memory, the soul of a former Kryptonian."

**"YOU ARE CORRECT, OLIVER QUEEN. ON KRYPTON, MY NAME WAS VRIL DOX. HERE ON EARTH, THEY HAVE CODENAMED ME BRAINIAC."**

Again, Oliver felt wrong about all of this. One look at Clark, Felicity and the rest of them told him that they were all thinking the same thing.

Something about this stunk.

"Why did Luthor think that you were an AI?"

**"BECAUSE I LED HIM TO BELIEVE THAT I WAS ONE. IT WAS A RELATIVELY SIMPLE TASK. ALL IT REQUIRED WAS THAT I NOT PROVIDE HIM WITH ANYMORE INFORMATION THAN HE ASKED AND ONLY DISPLAY THE INFORMATION THAT HE THOUGHT HE HAD ORDERED ME TO PROCESS."**

"What do you mean?" Felicity asked.

**"EARTH'S FASTEST SUPERCOMPUTER RUNS ITS PROCESSES AT ROUGHLY 33 PETAFLOPS, MS. SMOAK. IF THERE WAS AN EQUIVALENT, I WOULD RUN AT 565 YOTTAFLOPS. IN YOUR APPROXIMATION, THAT IS OVER A MILLION TIMES FOR EFFICIENT AND WITH GREATER SPEED AS WELL. WHILE I WAS ALWAYS RUNNING LUTHOR'S REQUEST ON THE MOST OBVIOUS SCREENS, I ALWAYS HAD ANOTHER MORE IMPORTANT TASK RUNNING IN THE BACKGROUND, UNSEEN."**

"What task?" Clark asked. Rarely did you hear Clark Kent, Superman himself, sound fearful. However, if both of them were right about where this was going, this was about to turn very bad, very quickly.

**"THIS."**

Suddenly, a map was projected against the wall. This was the same map that Wayne had shown them months earlier in the Batcave. It was the drones that Wayne had been tracking for months.

"What are they?"

**"ANOTHER ONE OF THE PROJECTS THAT VRIL DOX STOLE BEFORE HE LEFT: A DRONE ARMY. THE SIGNAL THAT BRUCE WAYNE HAS BEEN TRACING IS THE SLOW UPLOAD OF MY CONSCIOUSNESS INTO THAT DRONE ARMY. WITHIN THE HOUR, MY ARMY WILL ARRIVE AND I SHALL BE FREE OF THIS LIMITED SHELL."**

"What are you intending to do?"

**"I INTEND TO COMPLETE MY MISSION, OLIVER QUEEN. MY MISSION, BOTH AS VROL DOX AND NOW AS BRAINIAC IS SIMPLE: BRING KRYPTON TO THE APEX OF SOCIETY."**

"Krypton is gone." Clark said softly. "I've been there myself. There's nothing left."

**"WHICH IS WHY WE MUST BEGIN ANEW ON EARTH. WITH THE YELLOW SUN TO POWER US AND THE RESOURCES OF THIS PLANET, NEW KRYPTON WILL BECOME THE CROWNING JEWEL OF THE GALAXY. HOWEVER, THE HUMAN RACE IS A ROADBLOCK TO THIS REALIZATION. THEY HAVE PROVEN WEAK, INCAPABLE OF KEEPING THE PEACE AND WASTEFUL OF THEIR RESOURCES. YOU WILL BE REMOVED TO PAVE THE WAY FOR OUR APEX SOCIETY."**

"Removed?" Thea replied tauntingly. "You can't be saying that you are going to kill all of us."

**"BY MY CALCULATIONS, FORCEFUL EXTINCTION OF THE HUMAN RACE SHOULD TAKE NO LONGER THAN TWELVE YEARS."**

This really was the worst possible scenario. When Oliver had heard the beginning of the story, there had been a nagging in his mind, something that had told him that there was something that was very wrong.

Compared to before, his brain was now effectively attempting to push him down the stairs. Turning to Clark, he motioned them out of the room. However, before they could leave, Brainiac spoke one last time.

**"RESISTANCE IS FUTILE, OLIVER QUEEN. WHAT HOPE CAN YOU HAVE AGAINST MY POWER?"**

"We have each other. For now, that will have to do with."

With that, Oliver led Felicity and the rest of his family out of the room. The moment they were outside of the room, Oliver turned to Clark.

"Get Diana and the rest of them. We're meeting in Gotham City as soon as possible."

"How will you get there?"

"My plane is just outside of the city. I'm going to call Barry. He'll get us to the plane and we'll fly to Wayne's airfield just behind Wayne Manor."

"Won't it look suspicious? The Green Arrow and The Flash flying straight to Bruce Wayne's house?"

"We're literally on the verge of an intergalactic invasion and you're worrying about looking suspicious?" Oliver scolded Kent.

"Fair point." Kent said before disappearing in a blur of blue and red.

With Kent gone, Oliver pulled Felicity in close to him. For just one minute, he wanted the ability to hold her and know that she was going to be safe. Unfortunately, they weren't going to get that time. Keeping Felicity close, Oliver pulled out his phone and dialed Wayne's number.

_"Queen."_

"Wayne, get ready to have some visitors." Oliver said firmly.

_"Why?"_

"I found the source of your Kryptonian signal."

_"What was it?"_

"The memory of a genocidal Kryptonian scientist that Lex Luthor had hidden inside what I can only assume is the new building that he owns in Metropolis. It's been calling that drone army towards it."

_"How long do we have?"_

"It said that we had an hour."

 _"Then you better get your ass moving."_ Wayne replied before the line went dead. Looking at his phone, Oliver waited for the screen to go to black before he put it away. Turning back to his family, Oliver smiled sadly.

"We can't go home. I'm sorry but I'm going to do everything I can to keep you safe."

"We trust you, Ollie." Thea replied with a smile. "Just don't forget to get Roy on the way."

"I'll have Clark pick him up on the way there." Oliver grinned before the levity of the situation in front of him came crashing down. "We're going to get out of this. We're going to beat whatever this thing is and we're going to go home."

"If you think we are, then I believe you." Felicity whispered under his arm.

"I'm with you." Laurel added.

"Me too." Diggle finished.

"You're my brother, I kind of have to look out for you." Thea quirked. "Roy will be right with you too."

"We'll be there for each other." Oliver said firmly. "We're family."

Oliver knew they needed to move. All he wanted was more time with them. Now, he would have to fight for that time.

He couldn't imagine a more worthy fight.

"Let's move."


End file.
